


The Origin Story

by omgericzimmermann (HMSLusitania)



Series: The Samwell Irregulars [2]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, THE COLD WAR, Why?, Yes Really, because i am trash, because you know, derek nursey doesn't really wear clothes in this fic, just FYI, kinda both superheroes and the x-files all in one tbh, of the scientific disaster variety, superhero au, that's just a thing, why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-12 15:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7940242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HMSLusitania/pseuds/omgericzimmermann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an accident at the Samwell Institute leaves Will Poindexter and his friends Adam Birkholtz and Justin Oluransi with superpowers, there's really only one thing to do. </p><p>Panic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> So I promised a superhero AU a long time ago to a tumblr anon (who has since revealed themselves). I said, "Yes, absolutely I'm going to write this, but it's gonna be hella long so give me a bit." And now here we are. 
> 
> That said, I was too lazy to get this first chapter beta'd, so if you notice anything, let me know.

Honestly, Will should’ve known it was going to go wrong as soon as he woke up. His coffee maker broke and despite his master’s degree in mechanical engineering even he couldn’t fix it, which he hopes says more about the coffee maker than it does about him, and so he had to go to Starbucks which is never something anyone wants to do in a major city on a Monday morning. Added to the coffee problem, it’s Monday, and Mondays have been historically Not Awesome for him. Not to mention the fact it’s _that_ Monday, the Monday his parents died, so he was already on edge before his coffee maker broke. His car wouldn’t start but he didn’t even have time to try and fix it because he’d spent so much time trying to fix the coffee maker, so he had to walk to Starbucks, and then take the T to work and so he smelled like public transportation, and his co-worker’s cologne is messing with his head and all in all, it’s just a shitty – albeit very normal – day.

A normal day at work for Will Poindexter is not a normal day at work for most people. But then again, most people don’t work at Samwell Inc. and they don’t share a lab with several particle physicists and biochemists and microbiologists and astrophysicists. Most people aren’t any of those things.

He’s pretty sure most people want to punch Derek Nurse in the face though, so they’ve got that in common.

“Would you stop?” he demands. It’s just like any day, which means that just like any given day, Derek is encroaching on his personal space and shifting his math calculations closer to Will’s station. He’s got half a mind to casually introduce Derek’s equations to the Bunsen burner at Justin’s station, but he’s pretty sure that would be crossing the line.

“Would I stop what?” Derek asks, smiling innocently at Will.

Will’s immediate mental response is “existing” but he doesn’t really mean it. Derek just bugs the shit out of him and there’s no one reason he can pinpoint. It could be the fact he’s an astrophysicist and likes to babble at whoever will listen about the fact the boundless unlimited universe is expanding into _something_ , it could be the fact he always sits to close to Will’s station in their lab. Maybe it’s the hair.

Whatever the reason, Derek is Will’s chief annoyance.

“Come on Dexy, don’t be like that,” Derek says.

That’s the other thing. Derek refuses to call him Will, and flip flops between Dex and Dexy depending on how annoying he’s trying to be.

“I’m not being like anything,” Will snaps. “You’re the one acting like a child.”

“Ouch,” Derek says. He clearly doesn’t feel it though. “Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, didn’t they, Mr Grumpy Gills?”

“Derek, I swear to god,” Will says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

His day started well before the coffee maker died. It started with an email full of newspaper articles about the unexplained deaths of Samwell Inc.’s head of R&D and lead engineer fifteen years before with the subject line, “You know you’re working for their murderers right?”

Will had deleted the email, but he knows it’s still there somewhere in his cloud storage and he hates that more than he can fully express. It would be so easy to resurrect the email, to open the attachments, to stare at the pictures of his parents, to ask all the questions his older brother wants him to be asking. He could open the articles, he could march up to Zimmermann’s office and demand an explanation, ask what project it was his parents were working on when they died, ask why whenever he tries to access the files it tells him they’re classified above his paygrade.

But he doesn’t. He gave up on that particular crusade a long time ago.

The rest of the day seems like it’s going to be fairly standard. Justin shows up late and tries to sit demurely at his station. Mandy and Jenny, the particle physicists who share their lab, bounce in at some point and then vanish again. Around noon, Justin makes the mistake of taking off his lab coat because of the unseasonably warm October they’ve got, and reveals the peppering of hickeys up his throat, which sets Derek off.

“I hope he was cute,” Derek says, nodding at Justin’s neck. Justin flushes and slaps his hand over it.

“Come on, it’s the firefighter he’s dating,” Will points out.

A few months before, Justin had somehow blown up their lab, which Will thought was impressive considering he’s a biologist, and had come away from the incident with a date with the very well-built firefighter who was a lieutenant at their nearest station. Justin had started turning up to work with a lot of hickeys after that.

“Ooh, the really hot blond one?” Derek enthuses, his green eyes lighting up. “Nice!”

“Thanks,” Justin says, looking bashful. “He’s just…he’s very affectionate.”

“Well aren’t you just the cutest,” Derek says. “Isn’t he just the cutest Dexy?”

“I will give you my entire month’s salary to leave me alone,” Will replies. Derek huffs dramatically.

“Just because you’re a Samwell legacy kid--” Derek starts, which is when Will loses it.

They’ve been having this particular conversation since they were assigned to the same lab. Samwell specialises at looking at the same problems from multiple different angles of scientific study, since generally scientists are very bad at sharing across fields, so Will’s mechanical engineering and Derek’s astrophysics, and Justin’s biology, and Mandy and Jenny’s particle physics all go together in some way. But Will is the only one who had parents who worked at Samwell. Derek, for reasons best known to himself, thinks that means Will didn’t have to work very hard to get where he is. It’s like he thinks Will didn’t grow up in his grandma’s house in Maine with his five older siblings getting all the attention, like he didn’t have to deal with the insurance company refusing to pay out on their parents’ life insurance policy because no one could produce the bodies to say they were actually dead, like Will grew up with some kind of privilege and isn’t still paying off his loans from his undergrad and master’s degrees.

“You know what? Fuck you,” Will snaps. Justin looks between them like he’s worried Derek’s a powder keg, the kind of innocuous tub of black powder that doesn’t do jack shit unless hit with a spark – a spark like Will.

“Jesus man,” Derek says. “I’m so sorry that your application to work here got dog-eared right off the mark because you’re Will Poindexter and they’ve been watching you since you were a kid--”

“They’ve been watching me because my parents died in a classified accident for a classified project and literally the only thing I know about it is that there was a particle accelerator involved!” Will shouts. “Fifteen years ago _today_. So fuck. You.”

He turns to storm out, maybe take an early lunch because it’ll be easier. It’ll be easier than getting more emails from his oldest brother demanding an explanation for why he works at Samwell. It’s easier than dealing with the group chat his sisters have set up to commiserate their bad day and make sure someone’s sending flowers to the empty graves in Jonesport.

He runs smack into a very giant man once he opens the door. He’s blond and unnecessarily well-built, biceps bigger than Wills’ head. Not that Will is some skinny weakling, but he’s not made like this guy.

He looks up into pale blue eyes hidden by glasses and discovers it’s Adam Birkholtz, Justin’s boyfriend.

“Oh, sorry,” he says, trying to duck out of the way. Adam is carrying a bag of takeout and fortunately, Will’s managed not to spill his containers. His lab partners watch him go, but neither of the ones in attendance call him back.

He gets to the Samwell cafeteria and picks out some of the less suspect food choices (it’s one of the weeks where the molecular gastronomy people have control of the kitchens, which means it’s typically a week where no one willingly eats in the cafeteria except for Director Zimmermann). It looks like lasagne but probably isn’t, so Will is cautious as he finds an empty table and sits. There’s almost no one else in the room aside from Director Zimmermann, who’s sitting in one of the booth seats, her blonde hair perfectly coifed and her suit polished. She sees Will and smiles at him, a quick nod of acknowledgement. Will nods back.

It’s a bad day for the Zimmermanns too, since it wasn’t just Will’s parents. It was Will’s parents and Director Zimmermann’s very famous hockey playing husband.

As Will starts to work through his not-lasagne (which tastes suspiciously like actual lasagne, but he’s going to stay wary), a tall man with nice black hair, his mom’s cheekbones and eyes, and his dad’s everything else comes through the door. He’s got the sleeves of his red and black flannel rolled up and it takes Will a lot of willpower not to roll his eyes.

Growing up as a Samwell kid meant he spent a lot of time with the other Samwell kids, namely his own siblings, Jack Zimmermann, and Kent Parson. His eldest brother, Colin, had been older enough that he never spoke to them. His next eldest, Jamie, was usually off in a corner reading. But his older sister, Siobhan, was the same age as Jack and Kent and she’d spent all her time with them, Will, Iain, and Assumpta trailing after them. Will was mostly over his childhood crush on Jack Zimmermann’s blue eyes, but sometimes he still can’t help but be exasperated by the physical perfection Jack encapsulates.

On the anniversary of their parents’ deaths, Will can’t help but roll his eyes and return his attention to his lasagne. He doesn’t think Jack even notices him while he sits down stiffly across from his mother.

Will tries not to watch them creepily from across the cafeteria, but whatever conversation they’re having doesn’t seem to be a pleasant one. Will’s overheard some things in the past, about Director Zimmermann being disappointed Jack is a professional hockey player instead of a scientist. He’s not sure it’s entirely true, but it’s not a pleasant thought either way. He wonders if his parents would be proud of him.

He finishes his not-lasagne and dumps his plate before heading back to his lab. He can deal with Derek for the remaining hours of the day. Provided Derek doesn’t talk.

Will sits down in his lab station, ignoring Derek and Justin and Justin’s boyfriend who’s now sitting on the edge of Justin’s lab bench giving Justin smitten eyes.

Will turns back to his computer and his projects, fully intending to just ignore everyone, and then Mandy and Jenny come running into the lab. Will would’ve just ignored them too, but Mandy looks singed and Jenny’s hair has frizzed out with static electricity.

“Are you guys okay?” Derek asks.

Jenny giggles nervously and they converge on Will. He raises his eyebrows.

“Hey Will, so remember when you first started working here and you dug up your parents’ old plans for a particle accelerator?” Mandy asks.

Will looks between them and then at their singed state of being.

“Yeah,” he says finally.

“Remember how you submitted the plans for approval and were denied?” Jenny asks, her nervous giggle back.

Will just stares at them, because he has a feeling this is going a very bad direction.

“Remember how we built it anyway?” Mandy continues. Her eyes betray the same panic that’s building in Will’s chest.

“You did what,” Will says, too stunned to make it an actual question.

“And remember how it’s currently overloading in the basement and we can’t get it to turn off?” Jenny finishes.

Will gapes at them and jumps out of his seat.

“Whoa, Dex, you never said anything about--” Derek starts.

“Would you stop?” Will shouts at him, grabbing a toolbox from his station in the hopes it might help.

“Stop what?” Derek asks.

“I don’t know, existing?” Will calls over his shoulder, running after Mandy and Jenny into the hallway. As they hit the stairwell, the warning sirens start going off. The women exchange worried looks and speed up. Behind them, Will is aware that Justin, Adam, and Derek are following, but he doesn’t turn to look.

They hit the basement level, and find that most of it is on fire, great huge arcs of electricity shooting around the concrete in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Will ducks one and hears Derek swear somewhere behind him.

Why did it have to be Monday?


	2. Quarantine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still unbeta'd because I'm still a bad person.  
> (I have a beta, who I don't want to bother, that's the level we're at)
> 
> Anyway! Thanks for turning up to read chapter one and act excited about it! I actually only survive on the comments left on my writing (tags on Tumblr, comments here, whichever) because I have little else, so I really do appreciate it!
> 
> Disclaimer: Any resemblance to the short story Wingman is purely coincidental and influenced by the fact my dad is a firefighter and I think Holster would be phenomenal at it.

Over the course of the month of September, Samwell Institute had seen its way to multiple fire department necessitating accidents. The first one was Mandy and Jenny blowing something up, and Will hadn’t pried too deeply. The second was actually his fault, and a little bit of Derek’s fault, because Derek was testing the density of some asteroid piece and had splashed water onto Will’s side of the station, and Will had been working with magnesium, and then everything was on fire. The third time had been Justin somehow blowing up his part of the lab, after which he’d got himself a date with Adam, the poor firefighter who’d been called to deal with them all three times. This time though. This is something else.

The hallway is on fire. Will doesn’t think concrete can burn, but it seems to be giving it the old college try. Arcs of electricity jump across the concrete, which also shouldn’t be possible. Will looks down towards the bank of computers that run the accelerator. They appear to be the source of the fire, which doesn’t say good things for his ability to actually turn the accelerator off. Instead it seems to suggest that they’re, well, fucked.

“Okay, tell me exactly what happened,” he instructs, ducking another arc of lightning. Mandy and Jenny both start talking at once, which just makes it worse. He catches things like “scaled down” and “only a fraction of the sample” and focuses on fighting his way through to the bay. The one computer that’s not actively melting has nothing but error messages.

“Dr Kim! Dr Thompson! What is going on down here!”

Director Zimmermann’s voice cuts through the fray like a gunshot and all six of them turn to see her and Jack dodging the lightning and fire.

“Director!” Mandy exclaims. “You have to get out of here! It’s not safe!”

Will thinks that even the fire takes a pause to give her an incredulous “no shit” expression. The swirling mass of purple energy on the other side of the viewing window does not.

“Where’s the fire suppression system?” Adam asks. He has to yell to make himself heard over the fire. Will hadn’t known that before – that fire’s loud. The smoke is starting to fill the air, burning every time he takes a breath.

“Over there!” Jenny says, pointing at a storage room. “We couldn’t use normal fire extinguishers because of the nature of the--”

She’s cut off by part of the ceiling collapsing, cutting Director Zimmermann and Jack off from the rest of them. And cutting the six of them off from the fire suppression and exit. Will looks back at the burning computer bay, the electricity, the purple energy pooling in the accelerator chamber, and for the first time he acknowledges that this is it – this is when he dies.

“Mom, go!” Jack shouts. “Call the fire department!”

Director Zimmermann looks like she’s going to protest until Jack throws her bodily from the hall into the stairs.

“The suppression system’s in--”

A roaring sound worse than the first comes from the other side of the viewing panel. To Will’s horror, the window shatters, sending out shards of glass. Will and Jenny are closest, and Will manages to duck. Jenny doesn’t, the shard piercing her through the top of her lung. She collapses while Mandy screams.

“What were you testing?” Will demands, grabbing Mandy and pulling her away.

“A sample your parents sent home from--”

Will only realises the wall’s exploded when Mandy collapses in his arms, most of the door through her torso. He screams, scrambling backwards right into Derek. They look in horror while the purple energy builds where the wall was. It swells, growing, sparking.

“Jack! Get the fire!” Will shouts. He can’t take his eyes off the energy mass.

Right as Jack dives, the energy fires. It illuminates the corridor with unnatural purple light. With the flashing lightning, it seems like everything’s happening in stop motion.

The energy hits Jenny’s body first, then Mandy’s. They glow briefly, then darken. Another flash. The steel I-beam above them crashes down just as the light hits Justin. A flash. Justin’s gone, somewhere below the beam. Flash. Derek’s throwing Will out of the way. He feels his back hit the electrical panel. The light hits Derek and right in front of Will’s eyes he dissipates, dissolving to nothing but atoms. Flash. The light hits Will. A fire cloud is following the energy. It crashes into him, blasting him into the wires. Flash.

* * *

 

Will is genuinely shocked when he regains consciousness.

He comes to slowly, groggy, sore all over. Sore all over like he’s been electrocuted. He opens his eyes.

He’s in some kind of infirmary, the walls stark white with artificial sunlight around him. He closes his eyes again and wishes it away. When he opens them, it’s still there.

“Will?”

Justin’s face is over his, peering down. He looks nervous, or anxious. From what Will remembers, Justin has problems with anxiety.

“Can you sit up?” Justin asks.

He’s wearing white scrubs, but not like he’s a doctor. More like he’s a patient. Will looks around their room, the infirmary. There are glass walls around them, double paned bullet proof Plexiglas. There’s a hermetically sealed portal leading to them for decontamination. Justin’s a patient all right. A patient in quarantine.

“Are we quarantined?” Will demands, sitting up. Aside from the aching, he feels perfectly normal.

“Yeah,” Justin says. He glares into the distance, Will presumes at the monitors. “Even though there’s nothing wrong with us!”

“Please don’t yell.”

Will turns to find Adam curled up in one of the other cots, his hands pinned over his ears.

“Sorry babe,” Justin says. He looks back at the camera. “Could we at least get ear plugs?”

“Something wrong with your ears Birkholtz?” Will asks.

“I can hear the neurons firing in your brain,” Adam replies. “So yeah. I’m going with yeah.”

Will feels perfectly normal. He inspects his arms again, looking for any signs of damage. There are a few places where he’s been stitched up, probably from the glass when the viewing pane exploded. But he’s not burned. He feels like he should be burned.

Then he realises the three of them are the only ones in the quarantine.

“Where are--”

“Dead,” Justin interrupts, sitting down on his cot with a thud. “They’re – they’re dead. Mandy and Jenny they – the funerals are uh, in a couple days. Derek and Jack are missing, presumed.”

Will closes his eyes again and he can see it. He can see Derek dissolving into particles right into the purple light. After he’d thrown Will out of the way. Will must have only caught an indirect blast, which is why he’s still alive. But then again, Justin…

“Didn’t you get crushed by an I-beam?” he asks, looking at Justin curiously.

“And you got blasted by a ball of fire, but here we both are,” Justin replies. He looks around at the room they’re in. “In quarantine.”

Will grimaces and curls up on his cot. It’s not long after he wakes up that Director Zimmermann appears in their chamber. She gets suited up in her hazmat gear and comes through the containment and decontamination chamber, which makes Will feel just phenomenal about their prognosis.

“Will, Justin, Mr Birkholtz,” Director Zimmermann says. Her eyes are ringed in red. Clearly she’s been crying, and Will doesn’t blame her, since apparently Jack is dead. Jack, and Derek, and Jenny, and Mandy. “Do any of you know what Drs Kim and Thompson were working on?”

Adam stares at her blankly. “Ma’am, I’m a firefighter,” he replies.

Director Zimmermann acknowledges him by tossing a small round case in his direction. He pops it open and sticks the earplugs she’s provided in without further comment.

“Will? Justin?” Director Zimmermann asks.

“I knew they were up to something,” Justin says, crossing his arms and looking concerned. “They kept asking me about suspending biological matrices within inorganic material? But, like, organisms don’t really work like that.”

“I only found out about what was going on when they told me they’d built a particle accelerator from my parents’ old research,” Will explains. Director Zimmermann’s face contorts briefly before she manages to control it. “They said something about scaling it down, using only part of the sample my parents sent back from…and then everything exploded.”

Director Zimmermann nods. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but we’re going to have to keep you here a little longer. We’ve contacted your families, and Mr Birkholtz, I’ve contacted your fire chief. He was very understanding.”

Adam nods. “Are you going to figure out what’s wrong with us?”

“There’s nothing wrong with us,” Justin says, now sounding grumpy. Will wonders if it’s a stress reflex.

“I think two of the most equipped people to answer your question are in here with you,” Director Zimmermann says, nodding at Will and Justin. “I’ve upped both your security clearances so you could take a look at these.”

She sets a stack of folders on the small table in their quarantine, all of which are stamped with the words “Classified.”

“Are those my parents’ files?” Will asks, reaching for them.

“You have to understand, Will,” Director Zimmermann says. “The security classification wasn’t my doing. It was the United States’ government.”

“Oh yeah, because you can always trust those guys,” Justin quips. Most of the time Will forgets that Justin is Canadian, but every so often it comes up.  

“I didn’t think Samwell took government contracts,” Will says.

“We don’t,” Director Zimmermann agrees. “But your parents’ work almost started an international incident with the Russians, so the government classified it because we couldn’t risk the Cold War going hot.”

Will stares at her. “Ma’am? My parents died in 2008. As far as I know, the Cold War ended in 1991.”

“As far as you know,” Director Zimmermann agrees, which does nothing towards making Will feel better about their situation. He remembers Director Zimmermann from when he was a kid, back when people still talked about the fact she’d paid for her PhD by modelling and acting. She usually got listed along with the other stunning actresses who’d contributed monumentally to science in some way, usually at the top of the list. 1. Alicia Zimmermann, PhD in theoretical physics from MIT. 2. Natalie Portman, Biology from Harvard. 3. Hedy Lamarr, responsible for frequency jumping systems that were precursors to Bluetooth and wi-fi.

“I’m sorry about Jack,” Will says.

Director Zimmermann gives him a heartbroken look and leaves their quarantine. Will and Justin pick up the files. Even with the increase of their clearance, half of the information is still blacked out.

“The Cold War?” Justin asks, giving Will a bleak look. “What were your parents doing?”

“I don’t know,” Will says, picking up a file he’s seen before. It’s the specs to the particle accelerator. He looks through them, since it’s the one thing he might be able to understand. It looks like it was designed for irregular particles, which doesn’t make sense to him, but he’s not a particle physicist. The particle physicists from their lab died.

“Hang the fuck on,” Adam says. Will and Justin look over to see he’s picked up a file too. “This says asteroid.”

Will glances at Justin to see if he has any idea why this is freaking Adam out.

“Yeah, and?” Will asks. Adam seems to be able to hear them perfectly even though he’s got earplugs stuffed in. Unless Will is very mistaken, they’re the same earplugs they accidentally made in R&D when they were trying to come up with a soundproofing foam. They should make it impossible to hear anything at all.

“They were testing space rocks?” Adam demands.

Will and Justin exchange looks. “We have the largest collection of moon rocks outside of the Smithsonian here.”

Adam looks down at his file. “Yeah, but, a Russian asteroid? Found in Siberia in 2008?”

Will shrugs. It’s definitely not the strangest thing he’s ever come across in his time at Samwell.

He’s pretty sure that award goes to burning concrete and his co-worker dissolving without a trace in front of his eyes. After that co-worker tried to push him out of the way. After Will told him to stop existing.

They’re stuck in the quarantine for days. Will and Justin do everything they can to pull out the information from the files, but it doesn’t work very well considering all the blacking out and the fact they have no lab equipment. It doesn’t help that Will’s starting to feel feverish.

“Do either of you feel sick?” he asks when he can no longer ignore it.

“Uh, no, not really?” Justin says. “Why? Do you?”

Will nods and retreats to his cot, trying to get warm. It doesn’t work very well.

“Hey man, are you okay?” Adam asks, crouching next to him and pressing the back of his hand to Will’s forehead. He pulls it away immediately, shaking it out like he’s been burned. Adam looks over at the security monitors. “Can we get a thermometer in here?”

There’s no response, which Will thinks might be because this is the reason they’re in quarantine. This is why they’re stuck here. Because of unknown illnesses. He shivers and pulls the blankets up to his chin.

“Hey Will? Can I see your fingers?” Justin asks after he and Adam have a whispered conference in the corner. Will hands them over and Justin furrows his brow. Will understands why. The tip of his fingers are purple and singed for no reason he can explain.

“It looks like you stuck your fingers in the light socket,” Justin says, turning them over.

“Whoops, I’ll try to remember not to do that,” Will replies. He means to glare with it, but it doesn’t work very well since he feels like he’s got the flu. He feels like he’s got the Spanish Influenza type has the flu, like he’s going to die.

Justin and Adam watch over him nervously the entire night. They whisper together and Will’s not entirely sure Justin actually makes noise, but Adam seems to hear him just fine anyway. Neither of them show any sign of getting sick.

Then the artificial sunlight comes up in their quarantine and Will feels…fine. The fever goes, the  chills stop, his fingers turn a normal colour. He stares from them back to Justin and Adam.

“I guess you’re just solar powered now or something,” Justin says with a nervous laugh.

“Like Superman?” Adam asks, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend.

“I don’t know!” Justin says, throwing his hands in the air.

“Yeah, I don’t feel very super,” Will says, wrapping the blankets around himself like a burrito and deciding that if he’s going to be stuck in this quarantine until he dies, he might as well get it over with.

It’s later that same day that Director Zimmermann comes to tell them that it’s the day of Mandy and Jenny’s funeral and she’s so sorry but she can’t let them out to attend. Considering Will’s recent inexplicable fever, he understands. Adam, who can somehow hear her perfectly through the double layered bulletproof glass and the earplugs he’s still wearing, nods as well. But Justin doesn’t take it so well. He was closer to Mandy and Jenny than Will or Derek were.

“Hey! Let us out!” he shouts after Director Zimmermann’s retreating back. Adam groans and covers his ears, dropping his head below his knees like it’s going to help.

“Let us out!” Justin shouts. “There’s nothing wrong with us!”

There’s nothing wrong with _Justin,_ Will mentally corrects, and then Justin bangs his fist into the glass.

The double paned, bulletproof Plexiglas cracks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes about their professions:  
> \- Holster is a firefighter and an EMT. He is also one of the Lieutenants at the station where he works. He would've made Captain later in the year were it not for the Samwell incident.  
> \- Ransom has a PhD from Stanford, and now works as a biologist for Samwell, not a doctor.  
> \- Dex is a mechanical engineering sort, basically, ginger and poor Tony Stark. ~~and Nursey is Captain America, except no, he's not and I don't even ship Stony why did I say that~~
> 
> As always, do come cry with me on [tumblr](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com).


	3. Light 'Em Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to just forgo beta-ing because I'm lazy. Anyway, that being said, if there are typos, let me know. 
> 
> Also, thank you all so much for your kind support! It's really fun to read your guys' predictions and cackle evilly to myself about them.

At Adam’s insistence, Justin picks him up. Apparently this is something he can just barely pull off at normal moments, but he does it now with ease. Justin doesn’t try to break the glass because he’s a biologist and he knows that if they’re contagious they shouldn’t leave the quarantine.

“So like, obviously, it was the cloud of purple bullshit from Jenny and Mandy’s experiment,” Adam says. “That gave you superstrength and made me able to hear everything and turned Will into a plant.

“I thought I was superman,” Will replies, tapping his fingers on the metal bed frame. It’s just a bad habit, left over from a childhood of fidgeting and five ears of higher education spent bleeding coffee, but for some reason the frame keeps sparking when he hits it.

“We don’t have proof it was the cloud,” Justin says.

“Let’s think about it though,” Will says. “Because the cloud hit you, then the I-beam, then you didn’t’ die and have superstrength,” Will says. “Kind of like--”

“Like your bones are made of steel,” Adam says. Then a devious look flits across his face. “Hey, I wonder if--”

“If you make a boner joke, I will punch you,” Will informs him.

“Noted,” Adam says, sobering. “Let’s see, the cloud hit me and I was holding the fire alarm pull. So that doesn’t work since I’m not shrill.”

“And I was in an electrical wiring box with a fireball,” Will says.

“And we were already dead!”

Will jumps, Justin flinches. But Adam screams, the sound echoing off the glass. It hits the fracture left over from Justin’s fist and the wall shatters. Will is pretty sure his ears are bleeding and that he’s gone deaf, but then, he’s also pretty sure he’s gone crazy because transparent, nearly holographic versions of Mandy and Jenny are in quarantine with them.

“You’re dead!” Justin says. Will is relieved that he can hear, but Mandy and Jenny don’t disappear.

“Well yeah,” Jenny says. She seems oddly at ease with the fact she’s a ghost.

Not that Will believes in ghosts, because he’s a scientist and scientists don’t believe in ghosts.

“But it’s super awesome,” Mandy adds. “We can float through walls and knock things off tables and stuff.”

“But…how?” Will asks.

“We think that whatever state you were in once the cloud touched you, or whatever you were touching, sort of became permanent or part of you,” Jenny says. “We were already dead so we’re dead. Justin was touching stuff, Will you were kind of on fire.”

“Derek wasn’t touching anything,” Will says. So he became nothing.

“Okay, what the hell were you guys testing?” Justin demands.

Mandy and Jenny exchange looks.

“I’m – I’m really sorry you guys,” Mandy says. “The whole dying thing kind of fried our circuits.”

“Yeah, I know, I watched the computers burn,” Will says. He taps his sparking fingers against the frame again.

“No, like,” Jenny says, tapping her temple.

“And actually, we have to go. Funeral to attend you know,” she says, and they disappear.

Justin swears after them, and then they look around their no-longer-secure quarantine. They’ve got square pieces of shattered glass all over the place, and the wall that separates them from the outside world is completely gone.

“So Adam,” Justin says, steepling his fingers and looking at his boyfriend. “About the whole, ‘just shattered bullet proof glass by screaming’ thing.”

“It’s not my fault I got turned into the Black Canary,” Adam grumbles. Then his eyes light up. “Dude. I wonder if I can echolocate!”

“Let’s maybe test that not here,” Will suggests since his ears still hurt.

“And we’d better hope we’re not contagious,” Justin adds since there’s now nothing protecting the outside world from whatever’s wrong with them. Will nods in agreement.

It’s only moments later that a crew dressed in hazmat suits shows up, looking nervous. To Will’s intense relief, Director Zimmermann is with them and she isn’t wearing a suit.

“Given our careful observations, we’ve been able to determine the three of you aren’t contagious, regardless of whatever else is going on,” she informs them, stepping neatly over the shattered glass. “But would one of you explain this glass?”

“I cracked it, Adam shattered it,” Justin explains. He sounds guilty, but Will doesn’t know why. It’s not like Justin was aware he’d suddenly developed super strength.

“We’ll want the three of you to come in for observation,” Director Zimmermann says. “But we’ll have you taken home for the time being. Will, Justin, you won’t be required to come in for work until further notice. Mr Birkholtz, I would recommend staying home as well. At least until we can figure out what exactly happened to the three of you.”

It makes perfect sense to Will that he and Justin don’t need to come in to go to work for a while. Three for five of the people in their lab group are dead – even if Mandy and Jenny are apparently up to haunting people – and he and Justin are the science now.

When they’re let out of the quarantine section, Will realises he doesn’t actually want to leave. He doesn’t necessarily want to be in the quarantine basement, but he doesn’t want to go home either. Mandy and Jenny were doing something with his parents’ research that gave Justin and Adam superpowers and did something to him. He wants to know everything about that, as much as he possibly can. He wants to go back to the particle accelerator that Mandy and Jenny built and he wants to investigate.

But they’re escorted from the quarantine to their lab to get their things, and he just catches sight of the bright yellow caution tape over the door to the basement. He’s not going to get back there.

Their lab is remarkably untouched. Everything is right where Will left it, and he’s itching to get back to work, but…but the station next to his is entirely empty. No one has touched Derek’s things. They’re all exactly where he left them before they all rushed to the basement to see what Jenny and Mandy were up to. His notebook full of equations Will doesn’t understand is lying open, along with tracings of constellations and planetary orbits that look like something out of the 18th century. The random fact that Derek has a copy of Copernicus’s 15th century concept of heliocentrism tattooed between his shoulder blades presents itself to Will’s memory. He’d seen it the one time they’d run into each other in the staff gym at the crack of dawn maybe six months ago. It wasn’t even Derek’s only tattoo, since he also has a band around his bicep he’d apparently gotten when he was seventeen, and a few more constellations on his ribs which Will had caught sight of between the open sides of his workout shirt.

 _Had_ , he realises. Derek _had_ those tattoos. Now he doesn’t have anything.

Will doesn’t intentionally close Derek’s notebook and slip it into his bag, but it happens. Neither he nor Justin touch Mandy and Jenny’s side of the lab. It feels wrong somehow, since they’re still around in some capacity. Knowing Mandy and Jenny, Will wouldn’t be surprised if they kept showing up during their future research and advising them on how to do things.

“Ready to go?” Justin asks, picking up his own bag like it weighs nothing. Clearly the purple cloud had done more to his body than just give him bones of steel.

“Yeah,” Will says, shouldering his own bag. He hears Justin and Adam discussing which of their apartments they’re going to go to (“Probably not the best time to talk about moving in together right?” Adam quips. “Adam, you live in a hellhole. We’re clearly moving into my apartment,” Justin replies.) and makes to follow them. He bumps against Justin’s station on his way and the Bunsen burner catches.

“What the fuck,” he mutters in irritation, going to turn it off. The gas isn’t on.

He runs his finger through the flame like it’s a candle, and it disappears. Will frowns at it and looks at his finger, which is glowing orange. The glow doesn’t fade.

Will repeats his “what the fuck” and leaves the lab.

A car is waiting to take them back to their respective apartments. Will gets out first, leaving Adam and Justin to carry on back to their home. He wants to go back to work, or to sleep, or…something. He’s not entirely sure he can quantify what it is he wants.

Maybe to erase the past week of his life and start over? But no, that’s not it either.

He locks the door behind him and drops his bag on the couch, following shortly after it. He figures he’ll take a shower and go from there. He flips the switch in his bathroom and – nothing. The bulb is out.

He groans, wondering if he’s even got spare bulbs somewhere in his house, but when he goes to unscrew it, it flickers.

Will takes his hand away and the flickering stops. He puts his hand back and it starts again, flaring to so bright an incandescent white that the glass shatters. Will retreats to the kitchen to get his broom and looks down at his hand. It was glowing before, from the fire in Justin’s Bunsen burner, but it’s not now.

But the bulb had glowed.

Will lives in the school of “always be prepared.” He was never a boy scout since that costs money, but between his older brothers and his myriad uncles back in Maine, he’d never been allowed to go through life without being prepared for every situation. “Real wilderness school” his uncle Quinn had always said.

As such, Will has candles. He finds them in his junk drawer, along with a box of lightbulbs, and places them all on the kitchen counter. He grabs a lighter and catches the wick of the first candle. His fingers shake a little as he runs his index finger through the flame. Just like in the lab, the fire disappears and his finger glows. Now very nervous, he picks up one of the bulbs. Despite only touching his hand, it lights up like Christmas.

After a minute it flickers out, and when he checks his hand, it’s not glowing anymore. He lets out a nervous laugh, and then tries it seven more times each with the same results. If his hand isn’t glowing from the fire, the bulb won’t light. If he’s going to do good science with it though, he needs to see if it works the other way.

In a haste, he discovers a set of batteries in his bottom drawer. It doesn’t really surprise him that when he touches one finger to each pole of the battery he can actually feel the energy seeping into his body. It makes him jittery, like he’s had too much coffee, and instead of making his finger glow orange, it’s white light. He’s glad he didn’t try sticking his finger in a socket because he thinks he might accidentally blow up his electric bill.

His whole arm glows by the time the battery is spent. He drops it and stares at the candles on his counter. He has no idea what he’s doing.

He considers for a moment, then pinches one of the wicks. The candle sparks to life, but his arm is still glowing. He lights the rest of the candles until his kitchen is bathed in warm yellow light. He looks around for something else to test and alights on his phone. Battery is at 27%.

He plugs in the charging cable with his non-glowing hand and picks up the plug. The glowing fades from his arm slowly, and then disappears. When he looks back at his phone, it’s at 100%. He feels almost giddy, but sort of like he’s crashing from a caffeine or sugar high when he unlocks it and calls Justin.

“Hey Will. You okay?” Justin asks, answering on the third ring.

“I’m not solar powered,” Will says with no preamble. He takes a deep breath. “I’m a power cell or something.”

“What do you mean?” Justin asks, sounding curious.

“I’ll come show you,” Will offers, grabbing his keys and his jacket. Then he remembers his car won’t start, and it hadn’t the Monday they all…anyway. “Give me like, forty minutes to get there.”

“Why?” Justin asks. “Forty? Don’t you live like a mile away?”

“My car broke,” Will explains.

Justin is silent for a moment. “Aren’t you a mechanic? Like, don’t you have a Masters in mechanical engineering?”

“Yeah but the battery’s – You know, I’ll be there in ten,” Will corrects.

“Oh…kay?” Justin replies. “Don’t do anything stupid?”

Will agrees and hangs up the phone. He checks to make sure he’s wearing rubber soled shoes, that he’s not wearing metal anything, and sidles up to the outlet he normally uses for his broken coffee machine.

 _This is a terrible idea_ , he thinks, and then he sticks his finger in the socket.

The buzz travels up his arm, through his torso, down both legs, into his other arm, and leaves him sparking at the opposite fingertips. His ears are ringing and his scalp tingles, but overall it’s not an unpleasant sensation. He doesn’t feel like he’s dead or anything, which is also a good sign.

He has the sense to pull on a pair of leather gloves before he picks up his keys or tries to open his metal doorknob, because that’s not something he wants to test, and heads down to his car. It’s sitting there in the parking garage looking completely innocuous.

Will pops the hood and stares down at the dead battery. Careful not to touch anything else lest he explode it like the bulb in his bathroom, he pulls off one glove and touches the nodes of the battery. The glow fades from his skin, taking his buzz along with it, and he pulls off the other glove. His hands are perfectly normal again.

More than that, his car starts, and he’s at Justin’s apartment in seven minutes.

“You got your car fixed,” Justin comments when he opens the door.

“Jumped it,” Will explains. “Myself.”

“How?” Justin asks.

“I stuck my finger in the wall socket,” Will replies.

“No offence, but shouldn’t you be in the ER?” Adam asks from the couch. He’s wearing giant over-ear headphones with a little green light that indicates they’re doing as much noise cancelling as they can.

“How are your ears?” Will asks at a normal volume.

Adam shrugs. “As long as I keep those earplugs in and wear noise cancelling headphones, I can only hear things in this apartment. So that’s nice. Without the headphones, I get the whole floor, and someone down the hall is having a whispered negotiation about whether or not tonight is a good night for anal, and his girlfriend is really not into it and I kinda want to go punch him.”

Justin and Will exchange looks.

“Yeah, I’ma go punch him,” Adam decides, taking off the headphones and storming out the door.

“Not to sound glib or anything, but I think your boyfriend punching your asshole neighbour in the face is the start of our vigilantism,” Will says.

Justin groans. “Don’t give him any ideas. He’s already been talking nonstop about Daredevil and Black Canary and Luke Cage.”

“I heard that!” Adam shouts from down the hall. Will and Justin peer into the hallway in time to see Justin’s neighbour open the door. Adam grins at him, then grabs him by the shirt and drags him into the hallway. He bangs him against the wall and for a second, Will wants to point out that Adam is not the one with superstrength. That’s Justin. But then he remembers Adam is 6’4” and a firefighter and is unnecessarily well built.

“Hey buddy,” Adam says, giving Justin’s asshole neighbour a dark grin. “She said she wasn’t into it like four times, so knock it the fuck off, alright?”

“What are you talking about man?” the neighbour says. “What girl?”

“Your girlfriend?” Adam says, although his conviction is gone.

“Uh…my girlfriend lives in Vancouver,” the neighbour replies. He eyes Adam like he’s gone crazy, which Will thinks is fair.

Before Adam can try to explain himself, there’s a gunshot. Will wants to think it’s coming from a TV, but it’s way too loud. It’s nearby, in real life, and if he needs any further proof, Adam goes ashen and claps his hands over his ears looking like he’s going to throw up.

The four of them, including the neighbour, crowd around the window at the end of the hall. Cops are pulling up to the building across the street, climbing the stairs. News crews are descending, which Will kind of understands. Gunshots in this part of Boston aren’t that common. It’s where rich people live.

They leave Justin’s neighbour to Skype his girlfriend and return to Justin’s apartment. Will flips on the TV and searches for the news. The police across the street from Justin’s building are leading a woman out in handcuffs. She’s covered in blood, but doesn’t look very sorry.

The cops try to brush the reporters off with “no further questions” but it doesn’t go over so well.

“She’s saying he deserved it,” Adam says, staring at the screen in shock. “That he had it coming. Oh god it’s that song from _Chicago_.”

“How do you know that?” Justin asks.

“I can hear her,” Adam says, gesturing vaguely towards the side of Justin’s building where the crime scene is taking place. “That’s the woman I was overhearing. And she just stabbed the shit out of her boyfriend.”

“I thought there was a gun?” Justin asks.

“He shot,” Adam says. “To try and – you know, it’s an ugly situation, and I’m glad he’s dead. I will testify on her behalf.”

“How are you gonna explain to the cops that you overheard the altercation from the other side of the next building over?” Will asks.

Adam sets his jaw. “I’ll figure something out.”

Justin nods. “So, Will, what exactly can you do?”

“Are the batteries in your remote rechargeable?” Will asks, popping open the back. Justin nods, so Will pulls one out and lets the charge fill up his arm. Adam and Justin stare at him in shock. Although he’s not entirely sure he can, Will feeds the charge back into the battery and replaces it.

“You know?” Adam says. “I think we can make a play out of this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The official playlist (to be added to as we go along):  
> \- Wish You Away by There For Tomorrow  
> \- Angels Fall by Breaking Benjamin  
> \- My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy ("so light 'em up, up, up, I'm on fire")  
> \- Paranoia by A Day to Remember  
> \- Raise Your Glass by P!nk ("Raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways")  
> \- Jungle and Renegades by the X-Ambassadors  
> \- Blow by Ke$ha  
> \- Skulls and Bad Blood by Bastille  
> \- People Like Us by Kelly Clarkson ("People like us, we've gotta stick together")
> 
> And as always, come cry with me on [tumblr](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com).


	4. The Danger in Starting a Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so excited about their powers! It's been a lot of fun coming up with them.

Will spends time playing with his new powers for the few days they have alone at home to recover, before Samwell comes calling to check in. He, Adam, and Justin go and visit Mandy and Jenny’s graves, the freshly turned earth so dark in the October rain. Mandy and Jenny aren’t there, but Will pretty much expects them to be back at the lab anyway. That’s where they always were when they were alive. He’s not entirely sure they owned other living spaces.

They get to the lab for their tests and Director Zimmermann is concerned, to say the least, by Will’s apparent abilities. There’s talk of testing limits, of keeping them all off the streets and at Samwell.

“Like lab rats,” Justin says, crossing his arms and scowling. “I’m a biologist. I know how lab rats live. I’m not doing that.”

“It might be the safest course of action,” Director Zimmermann says, giving him a concerned look. Justin just scowls harder.

“For us or for everyone else?” Adam asks quietly.

Director Zimmermann doesn’t answer and Will doesn’t expect her to. He imagines it’s a combination of both eventualities. Because once the press gets a hold of what happened at Samwell, not just that there was an explosion and four people died, but that the three who lived are maybe irrevocably changed into something out of a comic book, Will imagines all hell is going to break loose.

They test Justin’s power first, since it seems like it’s the least inherently destructive. At the insistence of some of Samwell’s top scientists, Justin picks up everything in the weight room, then Adam, then several people at once. They make him test his force on a punching bag and he breaks it, sending sand everywhere. Then they stick him on a treadmill.

To Will and Adam’s surprise, Justin’s fast. He’s much faster.

“You know if we get him a vibranium shield,” Adam says, watching Justin run with a sort of hungry look on his face.

“What’s vibranium?” Will asks.

Adam gives him only a tired sigh rather than a disgusted look. “It’s what they made Captain America’s shield out of. It’s fictional.”

Will nods and watches Justin run as well. When he hits five miles, the techs make him stop. He’s only a little winded and doesn’t seem to realise what he’s done.

“Take it easy there, Captain Canada,” Adam says, clapping Justin on the shoulder.

“What? I wasn’t running that fast,” Justin says. “It was just like…fifteen minutes.”

Will taps the odometer on the treadmill, pointing out the part where it says five miles. Justin flushes and opens his mouth a couple times, trying to find some answer or explanation. Nothing comes out. Adam smirks at him, kisses him quickly, and then it’s time to start Adam’s tests. They put him in the soundproof room and hold a normal conversation outside of it, having him transcribe what he overhears. He comes back with, “Gee Will, it was kinda awkward when your heartrate picked up when you were talking about my boyfriend’s biceps.”

Then he gets to test his echolocation abilities. Will isn’t exactly surprised when it works. Shattering glass with his voice, on the other hand, takes practice.

“Well, sure, it’s about frequency modulation, right?” Adam says. “I’ve got to hit the right harmonic frequency to shatter the glass, don’t I?”

The scientists exchange baffled looks and Will is delighted when Adam looks smug.

“What? I read,” he says.

“Adam, how many comic cons have you been to?” Justin asks, giving him an annoyed look.

Adam considers. “Yes,” he says finally.

“That’s not a--” Will protests

“Shh, just go with it,” Adam replies, pressing a finger to Will’s face. When Will bites him, Adam yelps and jumps back, shattering one of the tech’s glasses. In the midst of apologising profusely, Adam vows to always wear his contacts.

“Sorry,” Will says, even though he’s not. “I’m the youngest. It’s a habit.”

Adam shakes his head in dismay and mutters something about Will being just like his youngest sister.

Then it’s time to test Will’s power.

First he absorbs a candle flame for them, then the entirety of a battery pack. He uses both these things to power the lights in the room for twenty minutes at their highest intensity before the filaments burn out. He uses whatever’s left to charge his phone again, even though there are no texts waiting. There are no notifications, no emails aside from general spam. His sisters and one of his brothers had written to say they were glad he was okay once he got out of quarantine, but that was all. While he stares at his phone watching the battery percentage climb upwards, he realises that the person who texted him most frequently was Derek.

The last time had been the Saturday before the accident. He’d texted Will two pictures: one of himself in a green shirt that matched his eyes, one in a soft grey sweater that made him look good enough to eat. Will had ignored him until Derek started badgering him to text back. Finally, Will had given up and just called him.

“What do you want?” he’d demanded since his Saturday night involved sitting on his couch watching reruns of _Fringe_.

“Bro, check the hostility please,” Derek had replied, all airy like he wasn’t being excessively annoying. “I need your opinion.”

“On what?” Will had asked.

“Which shirt is better? I’ve got a date,” Derek had replied. Will had hung up on him. Derek had called back almost immediately and Will silenced his phone, then texted him to admit that he should wear the grey one.

He checks his recent texts now, and discovers that was the most recent text he’d either sent or received. And now Derek is dead.

Will spends the rest of the tests in a sort of haze, and the guys in R&D promise they’re going to work on coming up with some sort of battery cell where Will can discharge his collected energy as needed. Will nods, a little numb, and keeps his decision to make one himself quiet. He needs something to do with his hands, after all.

“We need a home base,” Adam says as the three of them leave Samwell. “Like the Bat Cave or Avengers Tower.”

“So, I’m just gonna put it out there, those are very different paradigms,” Will points out. “Since the Bat Cave is a secret and Avengers Tower is giant with the word ‘Avengers’ written on it.”

“You do know something nerdy!” Adam exclaims, clapping his hands.

“My older sister is a dweeb,” Will replies, then instantly regrets his words. He’s twenty-six years old. He shouldn’t be using the word ‘dweeb’ in any context. But he’d spent his entire childhood calling Assumpta a dweeb, so it made sense to some part of his brain.

“Fair,” Adam says. “But seriously. We need a base.”

“I’d say our lab, but…” Justin starts before trailing off awkwardly. Will completely understands.

“One of our apartments,” Will says. “Mine’s got roof access if that makes any difference.”

Adam exclaims excitedly enough that he hurts his own ears and winces. Justin pats him on the back and they agree that yes, maybe they should use Will’s apartment for their base. Will tells them he has to go clean it before they can come over. They’re going to head their separate ways, but there’s a screech of tires and the sound of a woman yelling. The three of them look up in time to see a pick-up truck careen into the street while a toddler runs across it. Will can tell from the way the truck is driving that something bad has happened to the brakes, but the kid isn’t listening. He doesn’t even have time to react before Justin runs into the street, grabs the kid with one arm and then the front of the truck with the other. His feet dig into the asphalt, ripping part of it up, and miraculously, the truck stops. The kid is laughing because she thinks it’s funny, and the mom is still screaming.

The truck driver clambers down from his seat and promptly throws up on the street. Adam whispers what he’s saying to Will, something about “oh god I almost killed her, thank you so much man” and then Will sees the people on the other side of the street with their phones out.

“Adam, we’ve got to get out of here,” he whispers. Justin is handing the kid back to her ever so grateful mother, and setting the guy’s truck back down, and the people are still snapping pictures.

Adam pulls Justin away by the arm and they walk, rather than grabbing their cars at Will’s whispered suggestion, because it’s the 21st century and someone’s going to get their licence plates if they drive.

“Well that’ll be viral by morning,” Will says as he bids them goodbye at his street. They continue on towards the T and Justin’s apartment. Will stays up most of the night watching various sources pick up Justin’s heroics while he works on his portable power cell aside from himself, and decides all hope is lost around seven in the morning when BuzzFeed gets a hold of it.

“Superheroes in Boston?” the headline reads. Will groans and tries not to think about it too hard. The videos are grainy, and no one can make any of Justin’s features out other than “hot” and “black.” Since those characteristics describe a significant portion of Bostonians, Will isn’t too worried yet.

When he goes out to get coffee since his coffee maker is still on the fritz, he has to wonder. Was there this much visible disaster in Boston before they were in an accident that left them with comic book-worthy powers? Or did the level of small disaster creep up as soon as the particle accelerator overloaded?

Because his local coffee shop is on fire.

Will rushes forward and catches one of the people who manages the place as she runs out of the flames. He’s pretty sure her name is Maria.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

Maria nods and coughs.

“My brother’s still inside!” she exclaims.

Will looks back at the flames and can just make out Maria’s brother through the flames. So he does what he can, and he runs for it. The flames swarm him as he touches them, and his skin is starting to glow orange, but the fire is dissipating. And that’s the important part really.

Will siphons up the fire from the edges of the café and finds Maria’s brother hiding behind the counter. He’s kept low, and it’s pretty obvious to Will that he’s fine. He’s not even singed.

The fire department bursts in moments later and hauls Will and Maria’s brother out. They’re both stuck on the bumper of the ambulance with oxygen masks and Will is glad suddenly that he’s kept his power cell in his satchel. He’s doing everything he can not to touch anything, lest he accidentally light everyone on fire, and is very mindful of the fact the breathing mask on his face is pumping pure oxygen at him.

“Could you do me a favour?” Will says to Maria’s brother. He’s in his mid-twenties, probably around the same age as Will, with dark curly hair and pretty sea green eyes, which is…well, it’s exactly Will’s type, but he’s not going to dwell.

“Anything,” Maria’s brother – Paolo, if Dex is remembering correctly – says. He says it emphatically, glancing at Will’s mouth while he says it.

“There’s a thing in my bag, it looks kind of like a solar panel except small,” Will says. On the bright side, he’s pretty sure his glowing problem hides his blushing problem. “Would you grab it?”

“Oh,” Paolo says. He sounds disappointed. “Yeah, sure.”

He pulls Will’s power cell out of his bag and hands it to him. Will fits his hand into the retrofitted handprint reader and watches the individual cells in the panel light up while they fill from the energy he collected from the fire.

“How are you doing that?” Paolo asks while the paramedics and firefighters look around the building for structural damage. Will shrugs.

Eventually, the firefighters declare that the building is structurally sound, but it wouldn’t have been if someone hadn’t put out the fire before they got there. The upholstery in the window seats needs to be replaced, but other than that, they just need to clean the ash and soot out of the café.

Will feels his phone buzz in his pocket as the news crews start to appear and pulls it out.

==SuperSquad==

_Adam changed the name of the group to “SuperSquad”_

**Adam:** holy shit Will that was right by your apartment? Are you okay?

**Me:** yeah. I’m all good. I’m kinda the one who put the fire out.

**Adam:** tell Donnelly he’s a putz from me would you? That’s C shift from my station.

==

Will puts his phone back in his pocket and glances at the nametags pinned to the various firefighters nearby. One of them is, indeed, named Donnelly.

“Hey, Donnelly?” he calls. The man turns and nods at him. “Adam Birkholtz says you’re a putz?”

Donnelly laughs and tells Will to inform Adam that he’s a dipshit, and Will promises to do so, without getting involved in whatever else is going on.

“You know him?” Paolo asks.

“No, but a friend of mine is on one of the other shifts at the same station,” Will says. “I’m sorry about your café.”

“You’re sorry? Dude, you saved our asses,” Paolo said. “Mine in particular.”

Will blushes, and is well aware it’s actually visible now. “If you could maybe not tell people about that, I would really appreciate it.”

“My lips are sealed,” Paolo says, miming locking his lips with a zipper and a key.

Maria runs up to them while the EMTs take off their breathing masks and throws her arms around Paolo first, then Will.

“Thank you so much,” Maria says, kissing him on both cheeks. “Is there anything we can do to repay you?”

Will doesn’t mean to make eye contact with Paolo while she says it, but he does. Fortunately, Paolo is looking back.

“I wouldn’t say no to a cup of coffee?” Will suggests, and he’s promptly swept off to their apartment, which is above the café. While Maria makes coffee and explains how grateful she is since she and Paolo live in the building, Paolo stares at Will, his eyes half-lidded, successfully showing off his long black eyelashes. Will doesn’t jump, exactly, when Paolo nudges Will’s calf with his own, but he feels his eyes go wide. Paolo smirks and sips the coffee Maria brings them.

“I don’t know how you did it, but thanks to you, we’ve just got to clean and reupholster,” Maria says, squeezing Will’s arm. “This could’ve ruined us financially. We would’ve had to go back to Colorado.”

“And no one wants that,” Paolo says. “You know, we should probably get to cleaning.”

He makes to stand up, and Maria swats him with a dishtowel. “You stay here,” she says. “Come down this afternoon. You probably have smoke inhalation or something. And seriously, Will, thank you.”

Will lets her kiss him on either cheek again, and then she’s gone, back down the stairs to the café. Will looks over at Paolo.

“Twin sisters, man,” he says, shrugging in a “what can you do” sort of way. He leans across the table towards Will. “Now. I’m pretty sure there was some question of repayment?”

* * *

 

Will feels just a little like he’s walking on air when he shows up at Justin and Adam’s apartment.

“You’re covered in soot,” Adam says when he opens the door. Will hadn’t needed to knock, but he reasons that Adam probably heard him talking to Justin’s doorman and then followed his footsteps up the stairs.

“Yes,” Will agrees. “I put out a fire. Oh, and Donnelly says you’re a dipshit?”

Adam shakes his head, but fondly.

“What was on fire?” Justin asks.

“The café midway between our apartments,” Will explains. “We should probably go get our cars.”

“Wasn’t that fire two hours ago?” Adam asks, raising an eyebrow.

“The proprietors of the café wanted to thank me,” Will says. He swears under his breath when he feels himself start to blush.

“Wanted to thank you, huh?” Justin asks. His bemused expression matches Adam’s perfectly and Will’s blush only gets worse.

“He was very grateful,” Will says with as much grace as he can muster while he tries not to think about the fact it’s the first time he’s gotten laid in six months.

He smacks Justin in the arm when he starts to giggle.

“Shut up,” he says.

“But okay, yeah, seriously, we’re gonna have to do something about this,” Adam says, gesturing between the three of them. “Like secret identities or something.”

“What? You want us to be superheroes?” Will asks.

“Well, yeah,” Adam says. “We’ve got the abilities, and we’re all pretty decent dudes. So why not?”

“Because vigilantism is really illegal?” Justin suggests.

Adam shrugs. “That’s why we need secret identities,” he says.

“And how are we going to pull those off?” Justin asks.

“I know a guy,” Adam says with a shrug, like maybe everyone “knows a guy” who can help with secret identities. Will glances at Justin, who looks just as concerned but shrugs.


	5. Costume and Artistic Design by...

“Where are we going?” Justin asks for the fourth time as Adam drives them out of Boston. Will recognises the scenery, since it’s on the way home to Maine, but he doesn’t understand what they’re doing. In theory, they’re going to see the guy that Adam knows about secret identities. But to Will it seems like they’re heading for Salem or Marblehead, and he doesn’t understand why Adam, who is from Buffalo, would know anyone out there.

Will contents himself to sitting in the backseat of Adam’s BMW checking the newsfeeds. The story of the fire is everywhere, as well as the firefighters’ statements that the fire was out by the time they arrived, there were no casualties, and Paolo and Maria Hernandez are seriously grateful to the mystery man who saved them. Unfortunately for Will’s sanity, people are starting to put his story and Justin’s saving the kid together in the same articles. He keeps scrolling.

_ Meteorological Disturbances in Western Mass.  _

_Strange weather phenomena have been recorded in Western Massachusetts over the past two weeks, including off season snowstorms, blizzards, and ice blasts. Meteorologists are quick to point to global climate change as the culprit, due to the Quabbin Reservoir being far enough from the coast to dispel the coastal climate. When interviewed, certain meteorologists admitted to having no idea what was going on, and admitted that they couldn’t explain why there were snowstorms in late October._

Will scrolls past the article and keeps reading up on the news that was about them without being _about_ them explicitly. He doesn’t have to worry about snowstorms in the western part of the state.

Their destination does turn out to be Salem, and Adam parks in front of a small cottage off the main square. It has blue slatted siding, a tile roof, and chimneys spewing smoke on either end of the house. An unkempt garden fills the front walk, spider webs dangling from sun-dried Echinacea plants and glittering with morning dew and foggy sunlight. Will looks askance at the lavender bush when a black cat streaks out from under it, a small bell tinkling around its neck.

“You know the people who live here?” Justin asks Adam, sounding deeply uncertain.

“Yeah,” Adam says. He shrugs. “Buddies of mine from college.”

Justin and Will exchange looks and Will wonders if they’re having the same reaction. They’d both gone to ivy league schools, where people don’t exactly make friends. They make rivals, especially in the STEM fields they’d both been in.

Adam knocks on the front door.

After a long, tense pause it creaks open. Will has to look down to see the person, but before he can register details aside from black hair, there’s a squeal and a very tiny woman has jumped up and thrown her arms around Adam’s shoulders, her legs wrapped around his waist.

“Holster!” she shouts.

“Lardo!” Adam shouts back, and then he winces and claps his hands over his ears. He’s wearing his earplugs, but they only drown out so much. Fortunately, the woman, Lardo apparently, is clinging to Adam much like a koala cub, so she doesn’t fall when he lets go of her to cover his ears.

Will takes in more details now, like the myriad piercings in her ears, the fact her black hair is buzzed on one side and long on the other. Watercolours run up her bicep and he can’t tell if it’s paint or a tattoo, except that it looks suspiciously like one of Adam’s tattoos.

“What are you doing here?” Lardo asks, dropping from Adam’s torso and revealing the fact she’s over a foot shorter than all three of them. “And who are your friends?”

“Lards, this is my boyfriend Justin,” Adam says, squeezing Justin’s hand. “And our buddy Will. Babe, Will, this is my friend Larissa. Is Shits here?”

“Yeah,” Lardo says, leading the way into the house.

“Shits?” Will whispers to Justin, who looks just as confused as he feels.

“Don’t whisper for my benefit,” Adam says, raising an eyebrow at them and following Lardo. They head into the hall, which has been painted as a mural. Will doesn’t get the opportunity to look fully at it, because he’s distracted by the dining room. There are a few easels set up with half-finished paintings on them, and at an otherwise stately, polished cherry wood table, there’s a man sitting in his underwear. He’s going over a stack of papers that look shockingly like legal documents, and is chewing on the stem of an empty pipe with reading glasses slipping down his nose. Will guesses he’s about thirty.

“Holster!” he exclaims, jumping up. Will is at least glad he’s not wearing tighty-whities and has gone instead for red boxer briefs. The mostly naked man wraps Adam in a hug not unlike the one Lardo had given him and Adam seems oddly at ease with this.

“Hey Shits,” Adam says. “How are you man?”

“I’m good! I’m good,” the man, apparently Shits, says. “Who are your stunningly handsome friends?”

“My boyfriend Justin, buddy Will,” Adam introduces. “We, uh, we need your help.”

“Yeah, bro, of course, anything,” Shits says, sitting back down at his table. Lardo perches on the table next to him and he leans over to press a kiss to her thigh quickly, just a casual show of intimacy, and then looks back over at them. “What’s up?”

“You heard about the accident at Samwell Institute?” Adam says, pulling out one of the chairs across from Shits and Lardo. Will and Justin join him, at a loss for what else they ought to do.

“Oh, yeah,” Shits says, stroking his moustache. “Didn’t that guy from the Falcs die? Zimmermann?”

“Along with a few other people,” Justin says. “Including our lab partners.”

“Yeah that sounded like a bad deal,” Shits says. He shakes his head sadly. “You two work for Samwell?”

Will and Justin nod.

“See, the thing is, the whole accident? It kind of gave the three of us superpowers,” Adam says. “And we need a way to protect our identities in case of any world saving.”

Will, mostly just to be an asshole, pipes up with, “Well, not protecting my identity did get me laid.”

Justin goes to smack him in the arm but stops himself. Will is grateful, because he’s pretty sure it would result in him flying across the dining room.

“What kind of superpowers are we talking?” Shits asks, eyeing the three of them.

“If you go upstairs and whisper I can tell you what your neighbours three houses down are saying,” Adam replies.

“Sick,” Shits says. “What about you two?”

“Will’s a rechargeable battery,” Adam says. Will glares. “And Justin’s Captain America.”

“I thought we said Captain Canada,” Justin grumbles.

“I can tattoo the maple leaf on your ass if you need that,” Lardo offers. “I did all of Adam’s ink.”

“You tattooed our entire team back in college,” Adam points out. “But yeah, I might need a maple leaf on my ass, even if Justin doesn’t.”

“I will dump you,” Justin says.

“No you won’t,” Adam replies, and Justin grumbles again, but doesn’t contradict him.

Shits considers the three of them and strokes his moustache. “So. You need costumes and secret identities, and Lards has that part down I’m pretty sure. At least the costumes part.”

Lardo nods in agreement.

“For right now you need code names,” Shits decides. “Holster’s is obviously Holster. Justin, got any weird nicknames?”

“The boys called me Ranster when I played hockey in high school,” Justin says.

“Why?” Lardo asks, looking concerned.

“My last name is Oluransi,” Justin says.

“Yeah, we’re gonna call you Ransom,” Shits says. “And you, ginger. What’ve you got?”

“My name’s just Will Poindexter,” Will says. “It’s about as boring as you get.”

Shits considers. “Yeah, let’s go with Dex.”

Will wants to argue, open his mouth and fight, because Derek always referred to him as Dex and variations therein, and it always bugged him. It bugged him for longwinded reasons he doesn’t want to get into, though, so he just lets it go.

“Fine,” he says.

“So while Lardo works on costumes, I guess I’m gonna work on the inevitable legal defence,” Shits says. “Fortunately, there isn’t precedent for trials against vigilantism wherein the defendants actually had superpowers, so that’ll be in your favour.”

“Wait, are you a lawyer?” Will asks, more than a little in shock.

Shits, Lardo, and Adam exchange looks.

“Yeah,” Shits says. “Harvard Law, class of  ‘18.”

Will wants an explanation for that, but he doesn’t get one.

“So it’s just the three of you?” Lardo asks, pulling out a sketchbook and tucking one foot under herself on the table.

“Well, Mandy and Jenny are still around, but they’re incorporeal,” Justin says. “Since they’re dead.”

“Wait, you’ve got ghosts?” Shits asks, his green eyes going wide.

“Yeah,” Will agrees. “They’re the ones who caused the accident too.”

Shits winces appreciatively.

Will sort of feels bad throwing Mandy and Jenny under the bus like that. Sure, they were the ones who did the experiment, but it was his parents’ research and their sample that they brought back from Russia. Which he really needs to look into more. He just doesn’t know where to start.

Shits and Lardo promise to have made headway within a week, and the three of them head back to Boston. The radio is on while they drive, talking about the strange lightning storms and snow storms that have been going on all across the state.

“Weird weather,” Adam comments.

“You don’t think it’s because of the accident, do you?” Justin asks. “Like atmospheric discharge because of the purple cloud?”

“Look, bro, don’t make this into the pilot of _The Flash_ ,” Adam says. “We don’t have to go there.”

Justin gives him a look. “You know full well I don’t know what that means.”

Adam sighs dramatically and then slows to a stop. The cars in front of them are stopped as well.

“I love the traffic,” Adam says. “Great part of living in this state.”

“You’re from Buffalo,” Justin reminds him while Will looks out the window. They’re towards the front of the jam, and then he sees the cause. A powerline has gone down, and a livewire is writhing on the asphalt between the cars. It sends off sparks and is touching the puddles left over from an earlier rainstorm.

“Uh, guys,” Will says, clapping them each on the shoulder and pointing.

“Oh shit,” Adam says. “I’ll call the power company.”

He pulls out his cell and starts searching for the number, but Justin’s noticed the rain on the road.

“The entire street is electrified,” Justin says. “The emergency crews aren’t going to be able to get to the powerline to disconnect it.”

Will grimaces. “No chance either of you have a balaclava in here, is there?”

Adam rifles through the glove compartment and tosses him a knit hat. Will sighs but takes it. At least it’ll cover his bright red hair.

He gets out of the car and can feel the electricity seeping through his feet. As he makes his way down the rows of traffic towards the wire, a few people try to open the doors to their cars. He barks at them to stay inside. To his relief, they listen.

He can feel the power travelling up his legs, towards his torso. It itches, almost, like there’s champagne between his skin and muscle. He tries to shake off the bad feeling and reaches the wire. It crackles and spits. Will is regrettably aware of the people in the cars filming him, but fortunately, they’re all behind the windshields of their cars with shitty cell phone cameras, so he’s not going to be made. He braces himself and picks up the wire.

It feels sort of like someone’s stuck caffeine directly into his adrenal glands. It’s not a good feeling.

Fortunately, he can feel the electricity leave the puddle. Then the sirens come and the fire department pulls up along the side of the road. A firefighter jumps out of the cab of the truck and rushes towards him.

“Hand it over,” she says, reaching out a hand to take it. “We’ve got it from here.”

“No! Don’t! It’s live!” Will says. He holds up his hand in a stop gesture and his fingertips spark.

The firefighter stops, looking concerned. “How are you doing that?”

“Don’t ask,” he says, glancing at her helmet. The name “Farmer” is printed on it and she’s got the same sorts of Lieutenant’s bars that Adam wears. “But I’ve got the cable under control, and you guys can kill the power.”

Lieutenant Farmer looks at him again, then nods once. She bellows for her boys to do something about the powerline and Will stays where he is, holding the cable.

It feels like forever before they get the power shut off. Finally, it does, and Will can let go of the cable. Lieutenant Farmer eyes him while he pulls out his power cell and discharges before he accidentally hurts someone. He should offer free phone charging from it.

“You were at the café fire the other day, right?” she asks. “The guy who got everyone out and put out the fire before the fire department could get there?”

Will nods, because he doesn’t want to say anything really. He doesn’t want people to start looking for him.

“How do we contact you?” Lieutenant Farmer asks.

“I don’t know yet,” Will says. “We’re – uh – we’re working on that.”

“We?” Lieutenant Farmer says. “There’s more of you?”

“Maybe don’t spread that around yet,” Will says, and then he pulls up his hood and melds into the crowd that’s formed. He just knows this is going to come back to bite him in the ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shitty and Lardo almost didn't make it into this fic, but here we are. 
> 
> Come cry with me on [tumblr](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com).


	6. Of Parse and Particle Physics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said this on tumblr, but repeating here for clarity. 
> 
> This story will be broken into three main parts - The Origin Story, The Plot Thickens, and The Dramatic Conclusion. These parts will be intermixed with various short side stories about people who aren't Dex, much like The Biologist and the Firefighter. The second interjection, between Origin Story and The Plot Thickens, is called Frostbite, just fyi. 
> 
> Other than that, thank you all so much for your support. I - I think you might like this chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> also warning for Kent Parson's general existence in this chapter. I'm not fully sorry but anyway

Time seems to go quickly after that.

They get masks, they start to figure out what they’re going to do with themselves as far as helping people. Adam goes back to shift work at the fire station and finds a way to subtly give Lieutenant Farmer at one of the other stations the number to the burner cell they pick up.

Justin is good at getting people out of collapsing buildings, Will can put out fires and stop electrical problems, Adam is getting better at shattering glass and seeing their way in the dark and hearing crime from far away.

The first month they stop three bank robberies, rescue twelve people from a burning building, and Will tazes seven different would-be muggers using just his finger.

“What we really need is someone who can fly,” Adam complains, dropping onto Will’s couch and propping his feet up. Justin can run very quickly, which helps, but it’s not the best.

“We could get R&D on that back at Samwell,” Justin offers. “See if anyone wants to build the Bat Plane.”

“I feel like you’re mocking me,” Adam replies. “But I’m not sure.”

Justin pats him on the shin.

“Anyone been paying attention to the weather over in the west?” Adam asks.

“It’s still in a blizzard,” Will replies, rubbing his neck. One of the muggers had tried to punch him in the face and when Will ducked, he smacked his head into a wall. On Justin this would be no problem, but Will is still fairly fragile.

“And the electrical disturbances?” Justin asks.

“Still happening,” Will says. Justin opens his mouth. “And no, they’re not me.”

Justin nods. “Are you going to Providence tomorrow?”

The Providence Falconers are having a memorial service for Jack the next day. Will’s got a number of reasons he should go – they were childhood friends, he was there when Jack died – but he hasn’t really thought about it. He’s been too busy stopping crime.

“Probably should, right?” he says.

“Yeah,” Justin agrees. “You knew him better than we did.”

“I – yeah,” Will says. He doesn’t want to argue about the fact he never really _knew_ Jack when they were kids, because he’s six years younger, because Jack was always hanging out with Kent Parson, because Jack was seventeen when his dad died and Will was eleven, because they never really let Will play hockey with them, even though he wanted to.

But he still knew Jack better than Justin or Adam did.

“Did anyone do something for Derek?” Will asks quietly, sinking into his armchair with an icepack pressed to the side of his head.

Justin looks horribly guilty. “I mean, his parents must have, right?”

“No,” Will says, raising an eyebrow. “He hadn’t talked to his parents in years.”

“You guys were friends right?” Adam asks, and it takes Will a second to realise Adam is talking to him.

“Oh, uh, no not really,” Will says. “He was kind of the bane of my existence.”

Justin looks saddened by this news but doesn’t comment. “I think we’re gonna head home. Is your skull going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Will assures them. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

They agree and go, leaving Will to stew in his own guilt about Derek for a while. They haven’t been gone long when there’s a knock on his door.

Will sighs and leaves the icepack pressed to his head, then opens the door a crack.

The man on the other side is dishevelled. He hasn’t shaved in a while, scruffy blond stubble coating his jaw. His hair is unkempt, sticking up in the front. There are dark shadows below his eyes, which are bleary like maybe he’s been drinking. Will might not have seen Kent Parson in years, but that doesn’t mean he can’t recognise him immediately.

“No,” he says before Kent can say anything. He goes to close the door on him, but Kent catches it with one hand, jamming his foot in the opening as well.

“I just want to talk,” Kent says.

“Bullshit,” Will replies.

“Dex, come on,” Kent says, wedging the door open and fighting his way into Will’s apartment. Will has half a mind to light him on fire, because surely that would be easier. He drops the icepack and has grabbed the nearest lamp before he can stop himself, his hand starting to glow.

Kent looks from Will’s face down to his glowing hand and back up, his trademark smirk twisting his face.

“You’re a real livewire aren’t you, Dex,” he says. Will’s fingers spark.

“You look like shit, Parse,” Will informs him.

“Yeah,” Kent agrees. He nods at Will’s hand. “Nice to know I guessed right about that though.”

“What do you want?” Will asks.

“As the only members of the burned by Jack Zimmermann club, I thought you might actually listen to me,” Kent says, inviting himself to Will’s liquor cabinet and grabbing his scotch. Will shifts uncomfortably.

“Listen to you about what?” he asks.

“I don’t think he’s dead,” Kent says, holding up the bottle and gesturing at Will. Will sighs but nods, and Kent pours him a glass too.

“Dude, he dumped you twelve years ago,” Will says. “You’ve got to move on. And I was never burned by Jack Zimmermann.”

“No, I guess you don’t really burn at all, do you,” Kent says, handing him the glass and flopping onto his couch. “At least, that’s what witnesses are saying.”

Will glowers at him, since Kent is way too familiar with his sofa.

“Come on, Dex, sit down,” he says.

“No,” Will replies.

“Why not? It’s your house,” Kent says. “And Jesus, how long have you lived here? Like, eight years now?”

“I’m not sitting next to you,” Will says, condescending to sit in his armchair and glare.

“Why not?” Kent asks, looking him over. It’s a stereotypical Kent look, the kind that promises action without offering any part of himself. Because that’s what Kent does, he takes pieces of other people without giving anything back. Will doesn’t blame Jack for breaking up with him all those years ago.

“Bad things happen,” Will replies.

Kent’s smirk returns in full force and Will has to fight the urge to electrocute him.

“Come on, it’s not like the sex is bad,” Kent says.

“The emotional repercussions are,” Will replies. Kent opens his mouth to argue, then concedes the point. “Why do you think Jack is alive?”

Kent opens his mouth to speak and Will holds up his hand.

“Before you answer, keep in mind I’m not actually going to believe you, because you’re a sports reporter,” Will says.

“Where’s the faith, Dex?” Kent asks, feigning hurt. “And it’s journalist.”

“Yeah, when you can write an article that’s good for something aside from BuzzFeed’s top 10 best hockey asses, maybe you can use the title ‘journalist’,” Will replies. “I’m still genuinely shocked it didn’t include a note on how many of the ten you’d personally touched.”

“100%,” Kent says, and Will’s not surprised. “And come on, Dex, do you have any idea how much money I made off that article?”

“No and I don’t want to,” Will replies. “Now why do you think Jack’s alive?”

Kent sighs and downs the rest of his scotch, then snaps into a business mode Will never really expects of him.

“Particle accelerator melted down on October 10th, yeah?” Kent says, showing Will the relevant newspaper article. “So according to the official record, nothing lasting happened, except that three of you came out of the basement without any visible injuries and Dr Amanda Kim, Dr Jennifer Thompson, Dr Derek Nurse, and Providence Falconers starting centre forward Jack Zimmermann all theoretically died.”

If Will flinches at the mention of Derek, he doesn’t think Kent notices. He’s grateful for that, even as a static crackle sounds in the room. Will glances at his hands, making sure he’s not giving off electricity. He’s not, so he ignores it.

“Within a week of the accident at Samwell, a man stopped a pickup truck with one hand and saved a toddler,” Kent continues, pulling up a picture someone had taken of Justin saving the kid. “And probably that same person left size twelve footprints in the asphalt.”

“Okay,” Will says, because Kent is on the money but he doesn’t want to tell him that and feed his ego. The static crackle sounds again, and this time Kent looks up as well.

“That you?” he asks.

“No,” Will says, scanning his apartment. Nothing’s out of place except for Kent’s presence.

“Huh,” Kent says. “Anyway, one of your boys – I’m guessing either Dr Oluransi or Adam Birkholtz the firefighter – left those marks in the asphalt.”

Will is about to point out that Adam has to special order his shoes since he’s got giant feet, but stops himself.

“Within days, a fire in a café just around the corner from here was put out by a man with red hair,” Kent continues. “And since then, downed powerlines, attempted muggings, house fires, bank robberies, all of them have been taken care of by these three men in masks who look an awful lot like you, Dr Oluransi and Adam Birkholtz.”

“None of that says Jack is still alive,” Will replies, sipping his scotch. A flicker of movement in the corner of his living room catches his eye, but when he looks, it’s gone. It’s happened before, he realises, when he’s just absorbed a lot of electricity. Like the atoms in his eyes are too excited to let him see anything properly, almost like his vision is buzzing itself. But he hasn’t absorbed anything recently aside from the lightbulb.

“Sure, sure,” Kent says. “But they only found Drs Kim and Thompson, right?”

Will nods.

“And ever since the accident, there have been massive electrical storms and crazy snowstorms,” Kent says. “All over the state, but particularly in the west. I tracked the weather on October 10th, and there was a massive westward wind, especially in the higher levels of the atmosphere. A cloudbank moved in from the Atlantic and went west, right at the same time.”

Will just stares blankly at him.

“It could’ve carried something, that dropped in the west, and is causing the snowstorms,” Kent says.

Will wants to argue with him offhand, because Kent is not known for sane conclusions. But at the same time, the idea is festering. His powers, Justin’s, Adam’s, had come out of them touching something right before the purple cloud hit them, and Jack was reaching for the fire suppression system. The fire suppression system that Mandy and Jenny said was different because they weren’t sure how normal systems would react with the substance they were testing.

Some of what he’s thinking must show on his face, because Kent’s eyes brighten.

“You know something that says I’m not crazy, don’t you,” Kent says. “Come on, Dex – Will.”

“I--” Will can’t believe he’s about to say what he’s about to say. Especially because it doesn’t bring Derek back. Derek wasn’t touching anything. Derek just dissolved.

The strange flicker of motion and the crackle of energy sounds again. Will looks and catches a flash of purple. It disappears just as quickly.

“I think there’s a very, very small chance you’re not entirely crazy,” Will says.

“What do you know?” Kent demands, nearly falling off the couch so he can grip Will’s knee. Will wants to say he’s never seen Kent this desperate before, but it wouldn’t be true. He’s seen Kent like this before, even though he was just a kid himself at the time. He’d been all of fourteen, at a Samwell commemorative function for his parents and Bob Zimmermann, and had accidentally come across Jack breaking up with Kent.

Of course, Will knows that it didn’t actually end then, even though Jack was in the NHL and Kent was getting his first job at a paper. He’s not sure it ever truly ended, or if it was even truly over when Will and Kent were…but anyway.

“All of our abilities have something to do with what we were touching when the explosion hit us,” Will says slowly.

“And where was Jack?” Kent asks.

“The fire suppression system,” Will says. The purple flicker is back again. “Okay, what the hell is that?”

“I have no idea,” Kent says, following the purple cloud with his eyes while Will stands up to look.

The purple cloud looks freakishly like the cloud at the particle accelerator that gave them their abilities in the first place. It hangs in the air looking like plasma, glowing a little like textbook ectoplasm. But it’s not Jenny and Mandy, so Will doesn’t think it’s really a ghost.

But the cloud is growing.

“Should I call someone?” Kent asks. “Like the fire department?”

He scrambles off the couch until he’s behind Will, his phone up.

“Uh, I don’t know,” Will says.

The purple cloud is taking shape, twisting, consolidating. Will thinks he can almost see a face in it, which is freaky as hell. More of the particles are grouping together, forming other shapes, but they’re having trouble sticking together. There’s not enough molecular cohesion, not enough electricity. And, well, Will can help with that.

“Kent give me your phone,” Will says, holding his hand out. He doesn’t take his eyes off the face forming in the purple cloud.

He feels Kent’s phone drop into his palm and sucks the charge out of it. The electricity glows in his palm and he stretches it out towards the cloud. The face dissolves, a more coherent shape appearing. It looks like a hand.

Wondering if he’s gone fully insane, Will reaches forward and grabs it. He watches the electricity surge through the cloud, snapping the molecules together, forcing it into human shape. As the shape fills out, it starts with feet.

They’re a little too large, but maybe the same size as Will’s, and soft like the man has never spent time standing for work. The calves that develop next are long, indicative of height. His thighs are strong, well-muscled. Will tears his eyes away before he can get a complete eyeful and takes in oddly perfect abs decorated with…constellations?

Will’s eyes snap to the man’s face as it finishes filling in Derek’s sharp jawline. He stumbles against Will, shaking like he’s having trouble standing.

“Particle physics can blow me,” he says, and then he faints.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parse's character in this is the living embodiment of the one textpost that's "[to the tune of Barbie Girl by Aqua] I'm a garbage man in a garbage can." What he and Will had was never quite a relationship and was never quite healthy and they're both fully aware of that. 
> 
> Come cry with me on [tumblr](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com).


	7. Who Watches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! It was really fun to see everyone's reactions to Nursey's reappearance, and I hope this chapter is something of a balm in this time of strife before tonight's update. 
> 
> That said, yes, in this fic Parse is trash, so if you don't like him congratulations, there are aspersions on his character here. If you do like him, as I do, know that it's not meant maliciously.

Will either forgot or never fully realised that Derek is bigger than him. Will is not a small person, and they’re the same height, but Derek’s got at least ten pounds on him, and Will’s pretty sure it’s muscle.

It takes both Kent and Will to manhandle Derek into Will’s room and drop him on the bed.

“Do you know this guy?” Kent asks, tucking a blanket around Derek. Will almost protests the idea of putting Derek naked into his bed, but he can’t figure out what else to do with him, so he leaves it.

“Yeah,” Will says. he meets Kent’s eye with a wry smile. “Dr Derek Nurse, Astrophysics.”

“Oh shit,” Kent says, his eyes going huge. Like it wasn’t already a surprise when a human materialised out of a glowing purple cloud.

Will supposes it makes sense. They all turned into what they’d been touching, but they didn’t die. Derek turned into nothing, but he didn’t die either.

Which does lend credibility to Kent’s theory about Jack.

Will pulls out his phone and calls Justin. Adam answers after the second ring sounding deeply irritated with being woken up. Will wonders if Justin’s phone was on silent.

“Is someone on fire?” Adam asks. “Because that’s your department.”

“You’re the firefighter,” Will points out. “And no.”

“You need someone to crack a safe, either by hearing the tumblers or breaking it,” Adam guesses.

“No,” Will says.

“Then I’m going back to--”

“It’s Derek,” Will says.

Adam is silent for a moment, then Will hears him whispering with Justin, and unfortunately he can’t hear what they’re saying because he doesn’t have Adam’s hearing. There’s fumbling, and then Justin takes the phone.

“What about Derek?” Justin asks.

“He’s in my apartment,” Will says.

Justin makes an odd peeping sound, promises to be there in minutes, and hangs up. They arrive at Will’s house fifteen minutes later, out of breath, and confused. They pile into Will’s bedroom to see Derek’s unconscious form and Adam snaps immediately into EMT mode. He slaps a blood pressure cuff on Derek’s bicep and listens for a second, then presses his stethoscope to Derek’s chest.

“Blood pressure’s a little low, but his heartrate is steady and pretty normal for an athletic dude in his late twenties,” Adam says, hanging the stethoscope around his neck. “So what happened exactly?”

They retreat to the living room where Kent is waiting with fresh glasses of Will’s scotch. Will glowers at him but takes the glass anyway. He’s discovered he can burn off the alcohol in his system by leeching some energy out of anything that’s nearby, and Justin can no longer get drunk since his metabolism works too fast. Adam is safe, because he’s 6’4” and has blue eyes.

“Who’s this?” Justin asks, looking from Will to Kent and back.

“I’m Will’s--” Kent stops as quickly as he’s started and looks to Will for help.

“Oh no, don’t look at me,” Will says. “You were always the one who was all ‘we don’t need labels Dex it’s just sex and snuggling.’”

“I did not say snuggling,” Kent protests.

Will raises his eyebrow and a pink tinge colours the tips of Kent’s ears.

“So you’re Will’s ex in some capacity,” Adam translates. “Who are you?”

“Kent Parson, mostly for the Daily World, but some freelance,” Kent says.

Adam and Justin start to look shocked by the fact Will’s let a reporter into his house when they’re trying to keep secret identities, even if that reporter is his ex – maybe especially since that reporter is his ex – so Will intervenes.

“He’s a sports reporter,” Will says. “Specialising in hockey. Didn’t you guys see BuzzFeed’s top 10 asses in hockey?”

“My sister sent that to me,” Adam says. “It was kinda awkward since I’d met Jack Zimmermann, you know?”

“He’s got a great ass,” Kent agrees.

“Had,” Justin corrects. “He’s dead.”

“Yeah so about that,” Will says.

Justin and Adam turn to look at him. Kent explains his thought process about Jack’s survival, along with Will’s comment about the cooling system. And then Derek. Derek is alive and in Will’s room after having just re-materialised. Which puts a pretty strong spin on the idea that Jack could be alive.

“Holy shit,” Justin breathes once Kent has finished explaining himself with Will’s grudging commentary and explanations for how maybe, just maybe, Kent’s not crazy.

It’s almost dawn when Will’s bedroom door creaks open. The four of them stare as Derek shuffles out of his room, clad in one of Will’s Samwell t-shirts and a pair of Will’s boxers, which Will is trying not to think about. Will had noticed before, the fact that Derek is criminally attractive, but it appears his foray into molecular dissolution didn’t affect that in the end. His hair is maybe a little longer than it was more than a month ago when the accident happened, but other than that, he’s just the same from the stupidly pretty green eyes to the equally irritating tattoos that Will kind of envies. He also envies Derek’s abs since they’re nicer than Will’s own.

That or he just wants to touch them, but that’s not something he’s going to let himself think about.

“Hey man,” Justin says, giving Derek a wary look while Derek yawns and sits down on Will’s couch between Will and the arm rest. This has the negative effect of forcing Will closer to Kent.

“Hey,” Derek says.

He sounds tired, to the bone. He accepts when Will offers him a cup of coffee and Will uses the excuse of having to stand up to get the beverage to switch seats when he does come back to the living room. He sits down in the armchair and ignores the reproachful looks sent his way by both Kent and Derek because that is not a clusterfuck he needs to get involved in.

“So like, are you okay?” Adam asks, eyeing Derek.

“I have no idea,” Derek says. He looks over at Will. “Thanks for the zap. It makes it a lot easier to stick together.”

“Wait, were you conscious?” Justin asks.

Will glances at Kent, and finds he’s engrossed in the conversation, staring between Derek and Justin and Adam with guarded eyes that Will has learned mean he’s taking in _everything_.

“Yeah,” Derek says. “Yeah it was weird, sort of like I was everywhere at once. And Dex that whole electricity thing you’ve got is kinda badass.”

“Thanks,” Will mumbles, trying to be annoyed with Derek calling him Dex. It had always bugged him before, since it was the name Kent and Jack had stuck on him when he was just a hapless kid following them around Samwell’s childcare programmes, and it was the name Kent continued to call him even now fifteen odd years later. But he isn’t annoyed. Because Derek is alive.

“So can you still like, dissolve?” Justin asks.

Derek frowns and holds his right hand up. His pinkie separates into purple tinged molecules and then snaps back together.

“Yeah, I think so,” Derek says. “But I’m not a particle physicist. We’d need Jenny and Mandy for that.”

“They, uh, didn’t really make it,” Adam says.

“Yeah, but they’re still around,” Derek replies like this is easy or normal. Will wonders if he’s seen them around, since they’ve all three been in some sort of spectral state. “I’ve seen them. I mean, they couldn’t see me, I don’t think, but they’re still remarkably themselves you know?”

“You’ve seen them around?” Kent asks, and Will doesn’t bother explaining that he, Justin, and Adam had also seen Mandy and Jenny around.

“Yeah,” Derek agrees. “They’re out there avenging domestic crimes as far as I can tell. Calling themselves Phantom and Spectre.”

“Seriously?” Justin asks. “That’s pretty bad ass.”

“We need names,” Adam declares.

“Well I mean, you’ve already got Livewire, and Ziggy Stardust, so like,” Kent says, pointing his thumb first at Will then at Derek. “What is it you two do?”

“I am not going by Captain Canada, Adam,” Justin says before Adam can actually say anything.

Adam looks disappointed but he rallies and turns to face Kent instead. “Well, Lois, I’ve got supersonic hearing and echolocation, and Justin is essentially Steve Rogers post serum.”

The corner of Kent’s mouth curls up in a smirk that Will recognises all too easily. It’s Kent’s predatory, “yes I’d love to see if you’ve got the stamina to fuck me until I stop smirking” look. Recognising it for what it is, Will can’t help but flick a spark of electricity at Kent. It’s nothing more than the static from rubbing his socks on the carpet, so it doesn’t do anything besides snap him quickly, but Kent glowers at him.

“What?” he demands.

“They’re practically married, don’t you dare,” Will says.

Kent looks horribly, baselessly offended and presses a hand to his chest like a little Southern lady clutching her pearls. “You treat me like I’m some kind of homewrecker, Dex,” Kent accuses.

Will just raises his eyebrow again, choosing to ignore the baffled looks shooting between Adam, Justin, and Derek.

“It was one time,” Kent insists, the tops of his ears colouring. “And like, honestly, she didn’t even know he was gay so like--”

“You’re an awful person aren’t you?” Derek asks, folding his arms and staring at Kent with his eyebrows raised. In Will’s slightly too small Samwell shirt and boxers, he looks comfortable and fit and, well, Derek’s always looked good.

“I’m – well, I’m not good,” Kent admits. He sounds pensive. “I don’t know if I’d go all the way to awful though.”

“No you’re just trashy,” Will supplies.

“I lived in Vegas for six years, what do you want from me,” Kent says.

“Anyway,” Justin interrupts. He looks like he’s going to strong arm them into shutting up if they don’t do it voluntarily. “So Derek, can you do anything else or just dissolve?”

“I don’t know,” Derek says. “I haven’t been able to try anything, you know? Since I’ve been incorporeal.”

“Right,” Justin agrees. “So tomorrow we’ll go into Samwell and get you checked out and like, undeclared dead.”

Derek’s cheeks take on a rosy tint. “Oh, right,” he says. “I guess that happened, didn’t it.”

Even Kent has the decency to look remorseful on Derek’s behalf as they nod.

“I guess I don’t have an apartment anymore do I,” Derek adds. “Will, can I stay here?”

Will’s immediate, knee-jerk response is to say no, but he doesn’t. He thinks that maybe it’s because Derek called him Will instead of Dex.

“Yeah, sure,” Will agrees. “And Parse, you can keep trying to figure out where Jack is, as well as not telling anyone you know who we are?”

To his surprise, Kent takes him seriously and looks like he means it when he nods his agreement.

“I’ll head back to my apartment,” Kent says. “See about getting in touch with you guys via bat signal if I hear anything.”

He leaves then, and Will feels some of the stress and tension leave with him. Part of him knows it would be useful to have Kent on their side, since Kent is a reporter, and they’re starting to get enough press that they should probably have some sort of PR going for them. But he would genuinely love it if it was someone besides Kent.

It’s not looking like they’re going to have that option though.

“We should head home too,” Justin suggests, although Adam doesn’t look like he wants to leave. “Are you guys going to be okay until tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Derek says, and Will is glad he’s the one who answered, since really he’s the one in question.

“We’ll meet you at Samwell at nine?” Adam suggests.

Will agrees and they stand up. Justin hugs Derek, who seems a little surprised by this, and then so does Adam, which sends Derek’s eyebrows to his hairline.

“I know we didn’t like, know each other and shit before you died, but I’m glad you’re not dead,” Adam says by way of explanation while Derek pats him awkwardly on the back.

“Yeah, it’s chill man,” Derek says, and then they’re gone, leaving Will alone with Derek.

The silence stretches for a long moment until Will realises he’s staring and looks away. It reminds him a little too much of the first time they met. It was eerily similar, in fact, since Derek had shown up early for work because his home clock was on Mars time for reasons he’d never fully explained, and by the time Will got to the lab, Derek had managed to spill coffee all over himself and was sitting at the lab bench in a borrowed Samwell shirt (Justin’s that time) and his boxer-briefs, swirling Greek themed illustrations of Aquarius on his muscular thigh, looking far too pretty to be allowed. Will had just stared at him for a long moment, caught in green eyes – that matched his briefs because Derek was That Way – until finally Derek had shaken his hand and introduced himself as Dr Nurse and started giggling. Will’s genuinely misplaced crush had evaporated over the course of that first day.

Will is fully prepared to write it off as simply relief that Derek hadn’t died saving his life. That is his only explanation for why there’s a fuzziness in his chest.

“I’ll sleep on the couch,” Derek offers, looking ready to sit back down and stretch out.

“Don’t be an idiot, you just got back to being a human being again,” Will says. “And besides, your naked ass was already in my bed, so if I’m gonna sleep there I have to do laundry and I’m too tired to deal with it.”

Derek stares at him, and Will can’t read his expression, even as he feels himself start to blush. He can’t believe he just said that either, so he doesn’t really blame Derek for what he assumes is incredulity.

“I’m – yeah, fine whatever,” Derek says.

He starts for Will’s room, and Will winces and grabs him by the wrist before he can get very far. Derek’s eyes go wide and he stares at Will’s hand on his skin.

“Sorry,” Will says, letting go. “I just wanted to say that I actually am glad you’re not dead.”

“Yeah, but since we’re both not dead, I guess that means you kinda owe me something big doesn’t it,” Derek quips. He’s still looking at his wrist and Will can’t figure out why. So he asks. “Oh, yeah, no it’s just – that’s the first time I’ve actually _felt_ anything in more than a month.”

Will nods but doesn’t look at Derek’s face. He wishes now that the others had stayed, maybe even Kent, because then surely it wouldn’t be this awkward.

“Do you think you’ll be able to stay together while you sleep?” he hears himself ask.

“I have no idea,” Derek says, and Will is surprised to hear genuine fear in his voice. “I don’t suppose you’d stay with me to zap me back together just in case, would you?”

Will looks up to see if he’s actually serious, and finds Derek looking at him with big, vulnerable eyes.

Justin’s powers are fairly easy to control and not immediately life altering, even if they are handy. They’ve certainly done wonderful things for their team’s fighting ability. Adam’s are a bit more impactful, since they make his daily life sort of shitty and it’s caused him to use both earplugs and the best noise-cancelling headphones ever created by mankind at all times where he can get away with it. Will’s own powers mean he can’t use the T because he accidentally sapped the power from the electric rails a few too many times and almost started glowing in public, and they make charging his phone a lot easier, but…but Derek got the full blast of it, and if Kent is right, Jack is just as bad. There is no normal for any of them anymore.

And so Will finds himself nodding. “Yeah,” he says. “I can do that.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also! Just a quick reminder that the prompts for the [13 Days of Halloween fic-a-thon](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com/13-days-of-halloween) are being released on Saturday! Hopefully, this will also be along with the next chapter of Far to Fall if you're reading that as well. 
> 
> And as always, come cry with me on [tumblr](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com).


	8. See Right Through Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this all on my iPad with the aid of a martini. I apologize for any mistakes. Also the length of time between updates and the fact this chapter is so short. 
> 
> I'm having a chaos of a personal (mostly professional) life.

Derek doesn't dissolve in the night, which Will is only halfway grateful for. Part of him thinks it would be so much easier if Derek had, because then Will wouldn’t have to wake up with Derek snuggled up against him much like a kitten. He’s burning hot, too, like he’s running a fever. He’s so warm Will half wonders if he’d be able to siphon the energy off him. He doesn’t try, because part of him is pretty sure that’s creepy. 

He manages to extricate himself from under Derek without waking him and pads into the kitchen. It’s hard to believe it was only last night he was up with Kent of all people talking about the possibility of Jack still being alive and then Derek was also alive, and - and it’s a lot. It’s been a lot, ever since the accident at Samwell. 

Will occupies himself with making coffee, figuring caffeine will relieve some of the tension. He throws a piece of toast in the toaster, then remembers he’s got a houseguest for the first time in forever and adds another. Belatedly, he remembers that the last time he had a houseguest it was Kent, back when they were still sleeping together. He doesn’t really want to think about that one though, so he grabs the eggs from the fridge instead. 

“Aw,  Will, are you making me breakfast?” Derek asks from the bedroom door and Will regrets every choice that led to this moment.

“No,” Will says, even though he is. 

“I always thought you’d be the type to make breakfast for the people you banged,” Derek says, smirking at Will and grabbing the cream out of Will’s fridge without asking.

“Okay, one, we did not have sex and if you tell people we did I will see if I can reverse the electrical charges holding you together,” Will threatens. “And B, go fuck yourself, because I’m definitely not gonna.”

“Ooh, touchy,” Derek says, flicking his eyebrow in Will’s direction and adding cream to one of Will’s mugs before pouring himself a cup of coffee. “But it’s chill. I’m not your type. You like tiny blondes.” 

Will does not like tiny blonds. But Will does not want to explain to Derek that his relationship with Kent was based solely on the fact Will had a longstanding crush on Jack Zimmermann and Kent had...issues...with Jack himself. 

Because there’s no way having that conversation with Derek goes well. 

“So we’re going into Samwell today right?” Derek asks, suddenly all business. “To look at my power and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Will agrees. Derek nods and eats the eggs that Will makes for him without any further chirping. Absently, Will wonders if it’s because he’s nervous.

They get to Samwell a little after Adam and Justin. Kent, Will assumes, is off looking for Jack. 

“Are you ready to face the music?” Justin asks.

“Please, God, tell me there won’t be actual music,” Adam replies. “I can’t take it.”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Derek says after they’ve silently and collectively decided to ignore Adam’s comment. 

To say Director Zimmermann is shocked when she sees Derek would be an understatement. Her blue eyes grow huge, and she falls into her chair with a thump. 

“Hey Director Z,” Derek says with obviously affected casualness that makes Will want to smack him. 

“So guess who rematerialised in Will’s living room last night!” Justin says. 

Director Zimmermann is silent for a long time, looking between the four of them. Eventually, she takes a deep breath.

“I’m glad to see you alive Derek,” she says. What she doesn’t say, but Will hears anyway, is “I wish you were Jack.”

“Do you have similar powers to what these three have demonstrated?” she asks.

“I don’t think I’d call them similar,” Derek says. “Mine are a little...weirder? And molecular cohesion is difficult. Will had to shock me back together.”

“I didn’t shock you, I applied a steady, constant stream of electric--” Will starts. He cuts himself off. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I can dissolve at an atomic level while retaining consciousness,” Derek says. “I don’t really know what else I can do.” 

Director Zimmermann nods and together they go off to the testing facility. The first time Derek dissolves again, Will has to shock him back together. Tragically, he doesn’t get any better at reassembling his clothes, which means the entirety of Samwell has now seen Derek Nurse stark naked. Will has the misfortune to hear one of the other mechanical engineers, Collins, say to her lab partner that Derek looked good enough to eat and she wished she had a spoon. 

“You know he was dead, right,” Will replies, raising his eyebrow while the two women look awkward.

“Stop telling people that!” Derek calls from inside the testing facility. 

Over the course of the week, Derek gets much better at putting himself back together. He only needs Will’s help every fourth time, which is an improvement. 

So of course, because he does still need Will’s help, Director Zimmermann entrusts him to Will’s care. Will wants to protest, because he’s 26 and has more than one masters’ degree, and he’s not a babysitter what with being the youngest of six rather than the oldest. But he doesn’t. He grudgingly lets Derek stay at his apartment, although they do start trading off for the couch because Will can’t wake up next to Derek every day and stay sane at the same time. 

For the most part, he, Justin, and Adam leave Derek out of their crime stopping efforts. Derek is still just as clumsy as he was before, and his power doesn’t seem to do anything useful. 

“I mean, if he could walk a foot without tripping over something, that would be one thing,” Will complains while he hogties a bank robber.  

“Nah, bro, I totally understand,” Adam says, steering the little old lady who’d been at the front of the queue at the bank over to Lieutenant Farmer so she could get checked out by an on duty EMT rather than Adam. 

“He was always like that though,” Justin points out. He dusts plaster off the other patrons of the bank, offering an apology to the bank manager for the hole he’d busted through the wall on their way in. “You’d think being able to dissolve at will would make it better.”

“Dissolve  _ at Will _ ?” Adam repeats with a guffaw. Will flicks him in the arm and he squeaks in pain. “You put a shock in that on purpose!” 

“Yeah of course I did,” Will replies, rolling his eyes. 

Justin laughs at them which earns him a “thanks babe” from a pouty Adam, and then they’re on their way home. For the most part, the reporters and police of the fine city of Boston have decided they’re a force for good, the three of them, even if they are a little disaster prone. 

“Oh good, you’re back,” Derek says when Will walks into his apartment. “Saw the bank robbery on the news. You guys have got to get better uniforms.”

“We’re working on it,” Will says, even though he hasn’t heard from Shitty or Lardo in over a month. And anyway, they’d contact Adam, since he was their connection. Will doesn’t mention this to Derek.

“Chill,” Derek says. He pours himself a bowl of soup that Will had made earlier because apparently Derek is as good at taking care of himself as a newborn, and goes to hop over the back of the couch. Will winces and waits for the inevitable crash and the sound of soup spilling over his furniture, but instead there’s a confused shout of “What the fuuuuuu---” and when Will looks over, Derek is gone. The soup is spilled all over the couch, but Derek is nowhere to be seen. Will’s about to start worrying when there’s a scream from what sounds like his downstairs neighbour’s apartment. 

It’s second nature now, to run towards screaming. Will bursts through the door and discovers his 80 something neighbour clutching a cat to her chest in terror while Derek lies naked and confused on her living room floor. 

“My goodness young man!” the old lady exclaims. “You took your gym time very seriously didn’t you?”

“Uh,” Derek says, propping himself up on his elbows.

The old woman is staring directly at Derek’s core and for just a second Will follows her gaze. He does it half out of hope that he’ll be so used to seeing Derek naked that it’s no longer a cause for blushing and terrible mental images that make all the cold showers in the world irrelevant.

Tragically, he hasn’t reached that point of saturation yet.

“Mr Poindexter, is this the sort of company you’re keeping these days?” the old lady asks, her eyes now alight with mischief. 

“I had to get a roommate,” Will says, belatedly pulling off his flannel and throwing it at Derek. Derek fumbles the catch but holds it in front of himself as he stands. To Will’s chagrin, this gives him an unimpeded view of Derek’s naked ass, and no matter what shit he’d given Derek about it earlier, it’s a very nice ass. 

“It was nice to meet you ma’am,” Derek says, shuffling backwards towards the door. 

They get back to Will’s apartment and get Derek back in his pants and Will realizes they’re probably gonna need a clothing budget from Samwell, assuming they can get Samwell to give them money for what they’re doing. Maybe they can do it as a promise to not sue them for the accident. But if Derek’s clothes are going to keep disappearing, they’re gonna need help.

They’re silent while they clean the soup off the couch and get themselves new bowls. Eventually they sit back down at the kitchen table with their soup and the grilled cheese sandwiches Will has made. 

“So,” Will says eventually. “You did fall through the floor right?”

“Yeah,” Derek says. “I didn’t know I could do that.” 

“No, I thought as much,” Will agrees. 

They spend the next few days figuring out what exactly Derek can phase through. The walls are easy, and so is the floor. They even manage to get him to keep his clothes on for once. Then Will starts throwing things at him. They use a baseball so that it won’t break, and for the most part Derek manages to get it to go through him. So they start throwing other things, and most of it works except for the time Will jolts him with electricity. That Derek can’t dodge, and it seems to resolidify him in new and unusual ways. 

“Ow,” Derek says when the baseball hits him again. 

“But the electricity didn’t hurt?” Will asks. 

“Nah, just the baseball,” Derek says. 

“Okay,” Will says. “Okay. So at the very least you can walk through walls. I think that means you get to join our superhero crew.” 

“Aw, you’re calling yourselves superheroes now?” Derek asks, smirking at Will. Will throws a pillow at him but it just phases through him. 

“Well that’s gonna be annoying as hell,” Will grumbles. Derek just laughs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General Housekeeping  
>    
> \- The Halloween Challenge is up! It is running! You can find more details on [my tumblr.](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com/13-days-of-halloween)  
> \- Additionally! Starting on November 1st, I will be publishing my original work as a serial novel on tumblr because I am an actual crazy person. Come talk to me about it. There will be a notification about it coming soon on my tumblr. If you're curious and you don't follow me, you can do that [here](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com). 
> 
> Thank you all for reading and enjoying this story!


	9. The Peachtree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back! Sorry for the absence! My life has been a freaking adventure recently. Whoops. 
> 
> In addition to hitting my head so hard yesterday I had to stay home from work, I'm also working on approximately 17 projects at once! But I've updated this anyway.

It doesn’t take them long for Derek to get in the swing of things with their crew. The four of them do very well stopping bank robberies and the like. As November transitions into December, it becomes more and more common for Kent to turn up at their home base – Will’s apartment – and start bothering them about his theories on Jack.

“I mean, he’s not entirely crazy,” Derek says after Kent’s left. They had a close call that night, because Derek got shot, but fortunately he was able to use his powers to get out of it before anything untoward happened to him. “We did all survive the accident by turning into the different states of matter we were touching at the time the explosion hit us. Who’s to say that Jack wouldn’t have become Jack Frost?”

“Never speak that nickname again,” Will replies, scrubbing out the last pot from the casserole Derek had tried to make. He uses the word “tried” because it had ended up a flambéed mess and if Derek had intentionally meant to light the thing on fire, it would’ve been one thing, but since he had not and since it had taken Will’s power to keep it from burning the apartment building down, Will was not impressed.

“I’m just saying, Parse might not be crazy,” Derek says.

“Oh, he is,” Will replies, finally throwing the offending pot in the dishwasher. He sighs. “Just…maybe not about that.”

Because Kent is right, Will admits. And so is Derek. A steel beam fell on Justin and now he’s Captain America. Adam was messing with the sound system and now he can echolocate and shatter glass. He was in the wiring box and on fire and now he can…manipulate energy or whatever. And Derek was touching nothing and can now dissolve at an atomic level. Hopefully, not at a subatomic one. And Jack was in the cooling system.

“Hey, you don’t suppose you could divide your atoms do you?” Will asks, unfolding the couch so he can go to sleep.

“What do you mean?” Derek asks, helping him pile the blankets up.

“I mean I’m not a particle physicist and Mandy and Jenny – sorry Spectre and Phantom – are too busy convincing several creepy high level members of the Republican party that their houses are haunted--”

“Wouldn’t their houses technically actually _be_ haunted if Mandy and Jenny were there?” Derek interrupts.

“Well, sure, but like, they’re convincing them that they’re crazy so that they’ll have to leave office,” Will replies.

“Oh, sure, sure, right,” Derek says, tossing a few pillows onto Will’s bed for the night. They take it in turns most nights, who sleeps on the couch and who gets the bed. Sometimes Will thinks it would be easier if they were just together like Adam and Justin. He also promptly shoves that thought out of his head as soon as it enters.

“Anyway, I’m not a particle physicist and I don’t know how many atoms of hydrogen people have in their bodies--”

“4.666667x1027,” Derek replies.

Will stares at him.

“Approximately,” Derek adds.

“Anyway,” Will says. Derek looks sheepish. “But if you could divide your atoms not just into atoms, wouldn’t that mean you could be really a whole lot of nuclear bombs?”

“Probably,” Derek agrees. “But I don’t think I can. That would be sort of problematic if I could, right?”

“Seriously,” Will agrees, and then he beats Derek to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shower.

* * *

 

It’s only three days later that Kent assembles the crew.

“I think I found him,” Kent says, spreading what looks like a series of weather maps across the table in Will’s living room.

Will stares at the pictures of clouds moving across the state of Massachusetts and then looks up at Kent for some sort of explanation.

“So you guys remember all those weather reports of things being weird over in the western part of the state?” Kent asks, pulling out a map.

“It’s December in Massachusetts,” Adam says. “There’s snow literally everywhere.”

“Sure, yeah, but this was back before the weather started,” Kent says, pulling out some older maps. There’s snow clouds all over the western part of the state which is weird, yeah. Will remembers the reports about them.

“Okay,” Will says. He wonders why he’s the one most likely to give Kent the benefit of the doubt. After all, he’s the one with history with Kent. Surely he should be the one encouraging them all to ignore him.

“So these storms started right around the time there was that explosion at Samwell that gave you guys your powers,” Kent says. “And the storms started right here.”

He points at a tiny town on the map. It’s a few hours’ drive from Boston.

“I think that’s where Jack is,” Kent says.

“This calls for a road trip,” Adam says, immediately grabbing his keys off the counter and herding the rest of them out into the street. Will and Justin stare at him, unimpressed, but Kent and Derek seem ready to go.

“Why is he always so excited about things?” Justin asks in concern as they’re folded into the backseat with Derek.

“He’s your boyfriend,” Will reminds him.

Justin looks mightily offended but doesn’t contradict him because even Justin’s powers of self-denial don’t stretch that far.

“I heard that!” Adam says from where he’s fiddling with the radio.

“You hear everything,” Derek reminds him. Adam cackles and keeps fiddling with the radio. He leaves it on some godawful pop station until Kent switches it. It turns to some classic rock and before Adam can switch it back, Will zaps the stereo with some of the electricity from Justin’s phone. It stalls out on the classic rock station and Adam glares at him.

“If you broke my stereo you’re buying me a new one,” he says.

“That’s completely fair,” Will says.

Naturally, as the conversation always does with Kent, the conversation turns to hockey about half an hour out of Boston. Justin and Adam are both lamenting the Maple Leafs record and speculating whether or not they’ll be better this season since Matthews has the C, and finally, Kent seems to break.

“Sorry, Adam, aren’t you from Buffalo?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Adam says.

“And you’re a Leafs fan?” Kent asks.

“It’s why I swiped right on his Grindr profile,” Justin pipes up, and then burns bright red. Will grimaces at him.

“I thought you guys met after Justin blew up our lab,” Derek says, raising his eyebrow.

“We did, and then we went out for coffee, and then we both somehow thought the other was straight, and hooked up because of Grindr later that night,” Adam summarises.

“That’s mad fucked, you guys,” Derek informs them. “How the hell did either of you think the other was straight?”

“He was wearing salmon shorts,” Adam says. “And was in a frat.”

“You weren’t?” Kent asks in disbelief.

“I was in the a cappella club,” Adam replies. “We sort of had our own frat.”

“Wait seriously? You were in a cappella?” Derek asks, sounding like Christmas has come early. “Wait a second. That guy in _Pitch Perfect_ who looks like you, that was actually you wasn’t it?”

Will can see Adam blush, and wonders if he’s blushing hard enough that Will could siphon the heat off him. He doesn’t try because Justin is leaning forward and kissing Adam on the cheek like the fact he was an extra in _Pitch Perfect_ is somehow endearing.

“This is our exit,” Kent says, pointing at it and breaking up the moment.

Adam turns them onto the rural roads that take them past snow encrusted farms, and small hamlets, the kind that appear in the most stereotypical of greeting cards and post cards. They’re the kinds of villages that can still be called villages, where there are town hall meetings that everyone attends because there’s nothing else to do on a Friday night. They’re the kinds of places where people know their neighbours and call out to each other on the street to say hello and everyone knows everyone else’s business. They remind Will a little bit of the town where he’d grown up in Maine except landlocked.

They finally reach the one that Kent has identified as their primary target and Adam parks. There are carollers in the town square under the gazebo who look like they’re practicing for something coming up. Will can’t imagine what they would be practicing for unless it’s for actual carolling. But surely no one does that anymore.

The carollers stare at them as they get out of the car. They stop singing and just…stare. And stare.

Kent, who doesn’t and has never given a fuck for as long as Will’s known him, marches right over to them and fixes on his big fake New York smile.

“Hi there,” he says. “I understand you guys started getting some bad weather a few months ago.”

“Weather always looks like this in December,” the conductor says, staring at Kent.

Kent’s fake smile doesn’t falter.

“No, back in October,” Kent says. “Round about October 10th?”

The carollers exchange looks. Suddenly Will feels a little like they’ve stumbled into a horror movie.

“Who’s asking?” the conductor replies.

“My name’s Kent, I’m--”

Will grabs him and drags him back for a second. “Don’t tell them you’re a reporter,” he hisses.

Kent gives him a highly suspicious look, but does as Will says.

“I’m a meteorologist out of Boston,” Kent says slowly, still giving Will the hairy eyeball. “Noticed some strange weather phenomena out here and had a free weekend with the boys.”

“It’s Tuesday,” the conductor reminds him.

“We get weird weekends in meteorology,” Kent lies seamlessly.

“I’m gonna go grab a slice of pie,” one of the carollers says, tapping the conductor on the shoulder. It seems like it should be a totally innocuous phrase, but the conductor nods steadily like it means something vastly different. Will’s sticking with the idea that they’re in a horror movie.

“Well I don’t know what to tell you, kid,” the conductor says, shifting to show his sheriff’s badge and his side holster. “We haven’t been having any strange weather at all.”

“Sorry to bother you then,” Will says, dragging Kent back towards the car before the sheriff can shoot them. Well, shoot him, Adam, and Kent. Justin and Derek would be fine.

“Did your choir member say there was pie?” Adam asks while Will stuffs Kent into the car.

The sheriff eyes him suspiciously, then nods. “The Peachtree, just down the street. Best pie in Massachusetts.”

Adam thanks him and dives back into the driver’s seat.

“I say we stop for pie and then get to a different town where we will not be shot for asking about the weather,” Adam suggests, pointing the car down the road. They all agree, although Kent sounds glum, and finally find the Peachtree at the edge of the road leading out of town. It’s a classic little diner with red vinyl booths and Formica tables edged in chrome. There’s a bar with stools and the one waitress is wearing an frilly edged apron and a little hat like something out of the 1950s. Her eyes go wide in surprise as the five of them walk in.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” she asks.

“We were told there was the best pie in the state here,” Adam says.

“Oh for sure!” the waitress says, showing them to a booth. “Now, what you really want is the peach pie, but unfortunately we had a bit of an early frost and our baker’s peach tree went dormant early in the season. It’s just not the same with canned peaches, you know? But we’ve got a chocolate pecan and a maple apple and a pumpkin, unless you prefer the cream ones, because we’ve got banana cream and chocolate cream.”

Will and Justin both opt for the chocolate pecan, Adam gets pumpkin, and Derek and Kent go for the maple apple. They all get cups of coffee.

The pie is probably the best pie Will has ever tasted. The advertising is entirely true. There’s no way this isn’t the best pie in the state of Massachusetts. There’s just…no way.

“Do you think she’d sell us the rest of the stock?” Adam asks, eyeing the display case hungrily.

“If the sheriff wasn’t gonna shoot me for asking about the weather, he would definitely shoot us for that,” Kent says.

Will agrees and polishes off his coffee before deciding he should probably use the men’s room before they get back on the road.

He gets to the small hallway off the main restaurant and pauses to look at the pictures tacked there. All of them seem to be of the locals, including a newspaper article about the head baker of the Peachtree who apparently grows all his own produce in his little farm just south of town. The article shows a picture of him holding an award winning pie with a big grin on his face. There are more pictures of him scattered throughout the collage, including a recent one at what is apparently the Peachtree’s annual Thanksgiving for those without a place to go event. He’s wearing a terrible holiday sweater and almost winking at the camera, except that the reason one of his eyes is closed is because a shockingly handsome man is kissing the corner of his eye. A shockingly handsome man with messy black hair, a jawline that could kill, cheekbones sharp enough to cut diamonds, and a soft smile on his lips.

Will stares at the picture for a long, long moment and then looks back at the article about the Peachtree’s baker. It helpfully lists the road the farm is on. 

He rushes back to the table and sits, barely able to contain his nerves. Unfortunately, in his recent state, that means he keeps sending off sparks.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kent asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I have an idea of where we should go next,” Will says.

Of course, he realises. The sheriff and the carollers were circling the wagons. If Jack can really control snow like they hypothesise, and he washed up in this town and started getting friendly with their celebrity baker, who is apparently someone the townspeople feel compelled to protect, they wouldn’t want meteorologists poking around trying to get the story. Not if it meant they might take Jack away from the shockingly adorable blond man.

“You do?” Adam asks, his eyebrows creeping above his glasses.

“Yeah, we should go,” Will says, and Derek drops an absurd amount of money on the table to cover their bill.

They pile back into the car and Will directs them south, and then onto the appropriate county road. In the distance, he sees the old farmhouse complete with the red gables that had been in the picture. It’s entirely surrounded by snow, and seemingly much more than the other neighbouring farms.

“What are we doing here?” Justin asks as they park in the drive. “Also where are we?”

“This is where the Peachtree’s baker lives,” Will explains. “I think. That’s what the article said.”

“And why are we here?” Derek asks.

“Oh, because there was a picture from Thanksgiving of Jack kissing him,” Will replies. “Did I forget to say?”

Adam lobs a snowball at him and Will dodges. It goes to hit Derek, but phases through him.

“What?” Kent asks, close enough to a whisper that only Adam should’ve heard him.

The five of them walk up to the front porch, and Will hears a click. Without warning, the front door bursts open. They’re staring down the business end of a shotgun.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General Housekeeping
> 
> \- the 13 Days of Halloween challenge starts in four days! On October 19th! It's gonna be fun! More information can be found [here](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com/13-days-of-halloween). I think I fixed the problem with the link to the collection page, which can also of course be found by clicking on my name somewhere on this page. 
> 
> \- Starting on November 1st I will be publishing my original work as a serial novel on tumblr! It's about people with powers, sort of like Samwell Irregulars! You can find the blog where it will be posted and the Jacket blurb [here](http://lucittia.tumblr.com). Like it? Reblog it, share it, spread it. Don't like it? That's okay too. 
> 
> \- There is only one chapter left in this first part. It will probably be up before the Halloween challenge. 
> 
> \- I think that's all.


	10. The Samwell Irregulars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote literally this entire chapter this morning and it is undoubtedly rife with mistakes. Oops. 
> 
> Thank you all so much for following this story!

There is a lot of yelling. It’s Will’s main impression of having a shotgun pointed at him. There’s just so much yelling. Some of it is coming from the man holding the shotgun – a tiny blond – some of it is coming from the five of them. The situation is partially diffused by the tall, shockingly handsome form of Jack Zimmermann appearing in the hallway and putting a comforting hand on the blond’s shoulder.

“Hey, Bits, it’s okay,” he says.

“Sally said they were in town asking about the weather,” the blond, Bits, replies, not taking his eyes off the five of them. “And no offence, y’all, but I found the magical ice boy in the woods and I’m keeping him.”

Will is fairly sure he’s the only one who hears the small, wounded noise that Kent makes.

“Come on, kid, put the gun down,” Adam says, holding his hand out like it might help, might placate this Bits.

“I’m twenty-seven,” Bits replies, which shocks Will just a little because surely this tiny man is not older than him. But he is.

“Um, so before my boyfriend shoots you, who are you guys?” Jack asks.

The five of them exchange looks that must betray their confusion, because Bits looks up at Jack and then slowly lowers the gun.

“I knew you, didn’t I,” Jack guesses. “Before the accident.”

As one, they nod, and with a tired sigh, Bits lets them all into the house. It’s an adorably old fashioned farmhouse, and Will kind of likes it. It reminds him of a modern version of his grandma’s house, if his grandmother lived on a farm instead of in a fishing village.

Bits puts a pot of water on, and points them all to the kitchen table.

“Did I play hockey with any of you?” Jack asks, getting a stack of plates out of one of the cabinets and setting them on the table along with a basket of scones.

Will has known Jack for most of his life, and he doesn’t think he’s ever seen him this relaxed and comfortable.

“Jack do you remember anything about your life?” Will asks, because of the five of them, he knows Jack best aside from Kent, and Kent is…Kent is glaring at Bits like he can melt through his spinal column if he tries hard enough.

“Remember?” Jack repeats, helping Bits carry a tray of mugs to the table and sitting down. “No. But we eventually figured out who I was and searched me on the internet and it turns out I played professional hockey. Were you guys not my teammates?”

“Kent played with you in Juniors,” Will explains, nodding at Kent’s silently fuming form. “Didn’t go pro like you did though because of a knee thing.”

Kent grimaces, and maybe Will shouldn’t be bringing up Kent’s dashed dreams of hockey stardom so soon after they discover Jack is a complete amnesiac and shacking up with a different small blond, but Will’s still a little bitter.

“And then Derek and Justin and I all work for the company your mom runs,” Will explains, pointing them out in turn. “Adam is Justin’s boyfriend. The four of us were in the same accident you were.”

“Oh, so can y’all control ice too?” Bits asks, raising his eyebrow and looking entirely unimpressed.

“Um, no not quite,” Will says, and he leans forward to leech the heat out of the teapot until his hand glows. “I’m an energy converter. Justin is Captain Canada, Adam can echolocate and hear everything, and Derek is essentially the atom man.”

“Will, if we have to drink cold tea because of you,” Adam grumbles.

Will rolls his eyes and returns the borrowed heat to the kettle.

“We thought you were dead,” Kent says, speaking for the first time. He doesn’t look at Bits while he says it, just directly into Jack’s arctic eyes. Have they got bluer? Sharper? since the last time Will saw him?

“I know I saw the obituary,” Jack says, his brow wrinkling like he doesn’t understand why Kent would be upset about this.

“You saw the – and you didn’t – you just – Jesus.” Kent stumbles out of the kitchen and onto the back porch. The rest of them watch him go with concerned looks. Not sympathetic, Will notices, just concerned.

“Were he and I close?” Jack asks.

“You could say that,” Will replies. “Sort of…on again off again. I’m pretty sure you were off when the accident happened.”

“Pretty sure?” Jack asks, glancing at Bits and looking guilty.

“Very sure,” Will corrects.

He jumps when Derek kicks him under the table. Will glares at him and Derek nods at the backdoor where Kent has disappeared. Will rolls his eyes but excuses himself to go make sure Kent hasn’t buried himself in the snowdrifts from Jack’s powers.

Kent is leaning on the porch railing when Will finds him, staring out over the snow covered rolling hills of Bittle Farms. A small copse of trees stands at the edge of the yard, and the famous peach tree is nothing but icy twigs in the centre of the space. The sky above them swirls and eddies like cream dropped too dense into lavender tea.

To Will’s concern, Kent’s eyes are rimmed with red.

“Hey,” Will says, because empathy has never been his strongest suit, and he’s not sure how to comfort his ex about his ex’s ex being with someone else.

“Did you see how comfortable they were?” Kent asks, sniffing.

“Yeah,” Will agrees.

Kent snorts something that could be an uncomfortable laugh. “God, I’m just the biggest fucking idiot, right? I was so determined that he was okay, that he had to be okay, that he was gonna be alive, and then if I found him we’d be okay, him and me, right? And we’re not. He doesn’t even – god I’m an idiot.”

Will sighs and claps him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he says. He doesn’t know what else he’s supposed to say.

They’re interrupted by a loud bang from inside. To Will’s shock, the door bursts open in a gust of frigid air and a flurry of snowflakes. He and Kent exchange looks and run inside to see the entire kitchen encrusted with frost. Jack is standing in the middle of it, his hands on the table like he’s just slammed them down and done this.

Bits looks wary, but unsurprised, and is one of two people not covered in frost. Adam and Justin are icicles. Derek, of course, impervious to most things, is not.

“Um,” Will says.

“Justin suggested taking Frostbite here back to Samwell to get him checked out,” Derek explains calmly.

“Look, I understand that we came from the same accident and we’re from the same place, but I’m not Jack Zimmermann,” Jack says, clearly in continuation of their earlier conversation. “I mean, I was, but I’m not anymore. I don’t remember any of you, and honestly, I don’t care.”

Kent sways just a little next to Will, but Will ignores him.

Everywhere Will takes a step in the kitchen, the frost sublimates and disappears.

“You don’t have to stay permanently,” Will says. He holds up a hand like he’s making peace but simultaneously drains the energy from his power cell, just in case. “The four of us, we’ve got our little superhero team, and it’s fine without you. It’d be better with you, but I get it. After everything that happened all those years ago with my parents’ experiments and your dad, I wouldn’t want to go back either.”

Jack eyes his outstretched hand, and then slowly sits back down like he’s just realised he’s a threat to everyone in the room. Just as slowly, the ice retreats from the various surfaces and Adam and Justin.

“What experiment?” Jack asks.

“None of us are really sure,” Derek says slowly. “It’s classified, beyond any of our paygrades.”

“The short version is Drs Ainsley and Callum Poindexter went to investigate an asteroid crash in Siberia, and Samwell’s director Dr Alicia Zimmermann and her husband star hockey player Bad Bob Zimmermann went with them,” Justin explains.

“Director Zimmermann was the only one who survived,” Will says. “And whatever they were researching, they managed to send some of it back. Our old lab partners, Mandy and Jenny, they were testing a sample of the asteroid. That’s what caused the explosion that gave the five of us our abilities.”

Jack stares at him for a second. “What happened to those scientists? Mandy and Jenny?”

“They’re dead,” Adam says. “They go by Phantom and Spectre now. They’re haunting high level members of the republican party.”

Will can see Jack trying to work through the different elements of that and coming up blank.

“You guys are superheroes?” Bits asks. “Like, right out of the comic books?”

“Sort of,” Adam says.

“Mostly we just stop petty crime,” Derek says. “Bank robberies, muggings if we get there in time. That sort of thing. But it’s fun.”

“Batman with powers beyond money and gadgets?” Bits asks.

There’s a beat of silence followed by Adam squealing so excitedly he has to cover his own ears. “You guys! You guys I can echolocate! I’m an actual Bat-Man!”

“We’re not calling you that,” Justin replies.

Jack looks at the five of them with guarded eyes.

“You don’t have to join us, or do anything you don’t want to,” Derek says. “Just come back to Boston for a bit, get checked out, make sure you’re not gonna like…give your boyfriend freezer burn when you touch him, and then you can come back.”

Jack and Bits exchange looks, and Will realises he should probably figure out what Bit’s actual name is at some point.

“Just for a little bit,” Jack says. “A couple days. To make sure I’m not going to freeze to death in my sleep.”

“And see your mom,” Justin adds. Kent and Will glare at him. Alicia Zimmermann can take care of herself, Will knows that, but he also knows she’s going to be a wreck if Jack comes back from the dead and doesn’t remember her.

“Um, yeah,” Jack says. He sighs, tiredly. “Can Eric come?”

“Of course I’m coming, sugar,” Bits says, squeezing Jack’s arm. Jack smiles down at him quickly and then looks back at the rest of them.

“Okay,” he says. “We can just get this over with, right?”

“Yeah,” Adam agrees, jumping up and leading the way to the car. Justin and Adam are volunteered to go with Jack and Eric to make sure they actually go to Boston, and that unfortunately means Will and Derek are the ones who have to deal with Kent sulking in the backseat for the drive back to Boston.

They’re almost there when Derek’s phone buzzes.

“Uh, looks like we’ve got a stop to make first,” he says. “Home base.”

Will frowns at him, but heads to his apartment instead of Samwell Institute. The other car pulls up at the same time, its occupants looking just as confused as he is. They climb the stairs and find Shitty and Lardo leaning against Will’s door.

“Hey,” Adam says, hugging them quickly and letting them all in to Will’s apartment. Will regrets ever giving him keys.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Lardo asks, which is when Will realises she’s carrying garment bags.

“You are Jack Zimmermann,” Shitty says, gaping at him.

“Technically,” Jack says, looking around Will’s apartment with polite curiosity. Will tries to remember if Jack had ever set foot in his apartment before and comes up blank.

“So it was a little more challenging than I thought it was gonna be,” Lardo says, setting the garment bags on the back of Will’s couch. “But I figured out a way to work some of your DNA into the fabric so that they should work with your powers. So Dex won’t go burning his clothes off, Ransom won’t tear it bench pressing I-beams, etc.”

“You’ve got five bags,” Kent points out.

“Well yeah as soon as Shitty figured out Jack Zimmermann had been in the same accident, he insisted we make one for him just in case,” Lardo says. Will watched Jack shift uncomfortably in the back of their group.

“So here,” Lardo says, unzipping one of the bags. The fabric is dark green, soft, almost iridescent. It feels like Will imagines touching clouds would feel – cool, maybe a little humid, but comfortable at the same time. “They’re designed to be worn under your normal clothes obviously. Hand wash, hang to dry. Keep it away from Velcro.”

She hands around the appropriate bags to each of the five of them. Will kind of wants to try his on, which is a foreign impulse to him. Clothes have never been a source of comfort, considering he has what his sisters so lovingly refer to as “hockey butt.” But Lardo’s jumpsuits seem like they would definitely fit. And even be comfortable while they did.

“What’s this insignia?” Justin asks, pointing at a patch on the shoulder of his suit. An S filled up most of the space, with a bar coming down from the bottom tail, a dot in the space between the two curves, like someone had typed a semicolon over the bottom half of an S. A semicolon or maybe a lower case I.

“Oh, we figured you guys needed a name,” Shitty says.

“Si?” Justin asks. “I mean, I get that we’ve changed a lot, but I don’t think we went from being carbon based to being silicone based.”

“Not Si,” Lardo corrects. “SI.”

“SI?” Jack repeats, looking baffled. He looks at the others like they’re supposed to know something. Will doesn’t. A quick glance at his teammates proves they don’t either.

“Yeah,” Lardo says, and she grins at them. “You guys are the Samwell Irregulars.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General Housekeeping  
> \- The 13 Days of Halloween fic/art-a-thon starts TOMORROW. I am not remotely prepared. It's gonna be fun. Check it out [here](http://omgericzimmermann.tumblr.com/13-days-of-halloween)  
> \- I will be posting my original work starting on November 1st at [this site](http://lucittia.tumblr.com). Read the jacket blurb, like it, reblog it, share it, follow it, come talk to me about it, whatever floats your boat.   
> \- Is this really how you're ending this story Hayley what the fuck is wrong with you????  
> \- No, it's not. This is the end of Part I: the Origin Story. It will be followed sometime in November by Part I.5 Frostbite, and then later by Part II: the Plot Thickens. The Plot Thickens will eventually be followed by Part III: The Dramatic Conclusion. But yes, this is how Part I ends.


End file.
